Chapter 91: 7-9 Intermission

Intermission 7.9

Sujeong Kim

2004, June 9: Phoenix, AZ, USA

I tucked my grocery bag under one arm and unlocked the door to my house, subtly giving the plainclothes PRT agent walking his dog nearby a respectful nod. I'd have to get him something nice, maybe a bowl of warm hobak-juk. Phoenix never got too cold in the daytime, but the nights could have some chill to them.

The man was my next door neighbor, one of three houses on the block that I knew for certain had been bought out by the PRT on Director Lyons' orders. It seemed excessive, but I could see the need for it.

The first few months were the worst. Reporters stalked my house. I needed PRT escorts just to visit the grocery store. I stopped taking on jobs to play at events altogether because it became obvious many of them wanted to turn my attendance into an impromptu interview. I was grateful that there were no villains out to "make an example" of me. Was it because of the respect for the endbringer truce? Or because the Founders visited consistently over the first while? Or maybe there were and I simply never noticed because they were handled in the background by people far more competent than I?

It was enough to make me wish I'd remained in Babylon.

Almost. But I couldn't, staying holed up in Yusung's lab sounded too much like running away from the sacrifices my son made, from the people he fought for. It took me weeks to come to that conclusion. I lived in the lounge, and later in Yusung's hospital room. An invisible cape called the Custodian brought in food and somehow kept the base tidy. A well-dressed woman named Fortuna came to visit regularly.

At first, she was the bane of my existence. I hated her. I projected onto her every single failing of the PRT, both real and imagined. She was why my son felt the need to fight a new endbringer. She was why my son was in a coma.

Fortuna took it all and said nothing in her defense, only ever offering me an apology and a watery smile. Then one day, she returned with a saxophone, mine, dug up from the ruins of our house. In her hands was a songbook that Andy had been learning from. A collection of romantic, twentieth century, and modern era composers designed for intermediate students.

I broke. I wept as my fingers danced along familiar keys. I'd picked up the sax as an elective back when I was studying in Munich, something forgettable to get me through cramming for classical recitals with my violin. I never expected it to be what'd connect me to my son. Truth was, I never advanced much farther than intermediate with the sax. Everything I taught him, I had to review on my own before our lessons. It had been worth it to see my son smile again after losing his eyes.

Hours and days whiled by as I played my sorrows away. I liked to think he could hear the melodies we used to play together, even if I knew that was a lie. I played until my fingers were bruised, until I had no more tears left to cry. Then, when Fortuna returned, I asked her, "Why?"

Why Yusung?

Fortuna told me. Oh, I knew she hid things from me, but she told me enough, probably more than she should. She told me about a great evil, someone determined to destroy not just the earth, but all earths. She told me about how unimaginably powerful he was, stronger than the Founders, stronger than the endbringers…

She told me about how Cauldron was founded to combat them, and how my son had a power even more impressive than his creations: the power of foresight. She told me of how he predicted endbringers, how he wanted to expand the Worldstone Network to save people, how he wanted to make petricite an alternative to the Birdcage.

How he knew of Cauldron's existence before they'd ever approached him, how he knew the dangers of this path, perhaps even better than Fortuna did in some ways.

I hated her then. I hated Yusung too. For not telling me. For leaving me alone. It felt like I'd lost Namjoon all over again. I'd carried on then because I had a son to raise. Yusung made the hardship of moving across the world and starting a new life worthwhile, and now he was gone too.

I played and played, filling the facility with music to drown out the pain. I poured it all out into melodies I learned by heart. I played until my fingers ached and my voice became hoarse, until there was nothing for me to give, until I felt empty of it all.

I wondered if I'd been a bad mother somehow, if I could have done better, been more involved. Would he have charged an endbringer alone then? Would he have told me the truth?

No, nothing would have changed.

It hurt, knowing he would have done the same anyway. Yusung was that kind of bullheaded boy. A sobbing laugh welled up involuntarily. He got it from Namjoon, that stupid, bullheaded man I fell in love with. I'd begged him to take an assignment on shore, to give his ship to another man. Let someone else be away from his family for weeks at a time.

I flicked on the lights and busied my hands with putting away the groceries. It didn't banish the memories, but the banality of the task settled my mind, if only just a little.

"You know, it's really not the same without Yusung's biscuits," Fortuna commented, in perfect Korean of course, from the living room sofa. She placed the cookie jar back on the coffee table but nibbled on one yakgwa in her hand.

She'd appeared as she always did, seemingly from thin air. Years later, it became a game of sorts between us; I'd try to notice her before she spoke and she'd come and go like a protective ghost. I won once or twice, though I was certain she let me spot her.

"It really isn't," I smiled wanly. "I took up baking, you know. I still can't get any of the cakes quite right like he could."

"He cheated with his power."

"He did. Did you want to stay for dinner?"

"What is it?"

"As if you don't already know."

"I don't, actually. I only know everything some of the time."

"Nurungji with sides of grilled mackerel, mu-kimchi, and stir-fried spinach."

"Perfect, I could do with something light," she said with a soft smile.

"Do you have somewhere to be?"

"I do. There are some people I want to speak to who are in different time zones."

"Then catch a quick nap here before you go," I urged as I started to prepare the mackerel. "I'll wake you when dinner's ready."

"I will. Thank you, Sujeong."

I worked in silence as Fortuna spread herself out on my couch. I glanced back at the younger woman. She looked so peaceful like this, with her fedora tipped to just shadow her was a mystery, even now. She seemed so scarily competent one second and so vulnerable the next.

I was grateful for her. I knew of course that she allowed me to mother her. She dropped by just to eat and talk sometimes, and sometimes for a nap like now. She was the one who introduced me to Penelope and the other Wards, Yusung's old team, and convinced me to start holding individual music lessons.

It was… It was nice to have distractions.

X

2004, October 22: Phoenix, AZ, USA

I dipped a spoon into the galbi-jjim and tasted the sauce. It was perfect, savory and not too sweet. I'd left it simmering all day for this meal. It'd taken some cajoling, but Fortuna had been convinced to allow the Door, whatever tinkertech device that was, to open into my house for others once a month or so. I used it to make a meeting place where Yusung's old friends could catch up face to face.

The first to arrive was Raquel, the Masked Bandit and Wards Leader of Wards Team One. She didn't actually need a Door, but insisted on it anyway because "mystery portals are awesome." She had unmasked to me with Director Lyons' permission last year. After all, who was I going to talk to? What was one more secret? At this point, there was a decent chance I knew more about the underlying mechanisms of the PRT than a local director.

I felt privileged to know her face anyway. It was a little different than the secrets of Cauldron and Babylon, more personal in a way. This wasn't something Yusung knew but couldn't tell me for my protection; this was a friend he cherished. She still wore the petricite amulet around her neck even though she'd long since learned to control her overactive power.

Raquel was the only one of Yusung's old team who remained in the city. At seventeen, she was among the most experienced Wards in the city, an honorary firefighter, and an expert in rescue operations. She'd quickly shed her cutesy persona, presenting a professional image before the public. She hadn't grown any and still wore the silly raccoon tail and mask, but now only joked on camera to put civilians at ease. She'd developed a reputation as a reliable and personable heroine and an expert in her niche.

"Mrs. Kim!" she squealed as she wrapped me up in a tight hug. "Hi! How was your day? Mine was super long. I swear, if I have to explain to that idiot Cactus Jack one more time how S&R is supposed to go, I'm going to kick his butt. Like, seriously, you can't tell civilians their relative is lowest priority triage because we're out of potions and he's already bleeding out! How insensitive can you be?"

I laughed and patted her back. Out of the public eye, she was as excitable as ever and I was grateful for it. She brought a bit of color to my life, a spot of randomness that made the house feel more lived-in.

"Welcome, Raquel," I said. My English had improved a great deal thanks to conversing with her and Penelope.

"Mmm! What's that smell?"

"Galbi-jjim, braised short ribs. I also made some japchae and fresh cucumber kimchi."

"Awesome! You're the best."

The Door opened in my living room, admitting a familiar couple. The man was tall, with sandy-brown hair that always looked tousled by the wind no matter what he did to tame it. He wore an easygoing smile on a scruffy but handsome face, a look that was only marred by the fact that half his right ear was missing.

The woman was similarly tall, with a svelte but well-muscled build and long, blonde hair she wore in a messy bun. Her blue eyes zeroed in on Raquel and me. She spread her arms wide and I felt an invisible pressure tug us towards her in a big hug. She'd really gotten the hang of her second trigger.

"Hello, Mrs. Kim. Hey, Raq," she said softly.

"Hey, Penny, David," Raquel mumbled. "How's Albuquerque?"

"Ugh, don't call me Penny. It's Penelope."

"But Penny is so much easier to say."

"It sounds too cutesy."

"You let me call you Penny," David said with a chuckle.

"Because otherwise you make up increasingly cheesy pet names," the boxer grumbled. "Anyway, Albuquerque's great. Much quieter than Phoenix. I heard you and Oathkeeper took out a new gang trying to muscle in after the Crips."

"Ugh, don't remind me. They weren't even going for a drug monopoly like normal gangsters. No, they had to try their hand at human trafficking. That was the only reason I got called in, so I could get hostages out. One of them didn't make it."

"You did good work, Raq," David said with a firm nod and a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess. I got to see Oathkeeper go ballistic on them so that was nice. Pretty sure their brute's okay… Has a new phobia of samurais I bet."

I smiled as the three heroes caught up. It was nice to let them meet up in person like this. I really only knew Raquel and Penelope, the latter after we got to talking when she visited Yusung's hospital room, but they were my son's friends. This connection they had, the relationships that no one seemed to fully appreciate until they were cut away, I didn't want them to lose it. They'd always be welcome in my home.

The Door opened a final time to admit Yasmine de la Rosa, Hat Trick and member of Protectorate Oakland, the last of their group. She was a young woman of nineteen, who looked like she could be Raquel's older sister. After graduating, she applied to and was accepted to UC Berkeley.

"Yo, what's up, homies?" she yelled boisterously as she gave her friends a hug one by one.

"Homies? People actually say that?" Penny asked, brow quirked in amusement.

"They do in Oakland."

"Are you still studying to be a paramedic?"

"Yeah, shit's hard. Like, I can cheat with the right hat, but it doesn't feel right, you know? I wanna be able to help people without wearing a mask."

"I feel that. I'm still trying to decide on what I want to study. Maybe forensics like Dave?"

"Ehh, no offense, but I can't see it," her fiance said with a carefree chuckle.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"That you have no interest in biology or chemistry."

"True…"

"Don't sweat, babe, you'll figure it out."

The four of them bickered and bantered like the old friends they were, mocking each other one moment and encouraging one another the next. It was heartwarming to watch, a glimpse of the relationships my son had.

With them being scattered all over the United States, the Door was the only way for them to gather like this. In a way, I felt that keeping their friendship alive, even if just as a movie night once in a while, was something I could do for Yusung. He'd wake up one day and though they each went their separate ways to pursue their own ambitions, I wanted them to be available when he awoke.

X

2004, December 27: Phoenix, AZ, USA

I sat at my kitchen table, reading over ongoing news reports, both domestic and international. I didn't need to, but keeping abreast of current events made me feel a little closer to my son, to know all that he had fought for and influenced in his short time as a hero.

Not everything was about him, but if I looked closely enough, I thought I could spy Cauldron's hand working between the lines. It was hard to imagine that my son was part of a global conspiracy, but seeing the good they wrought in the world made waiting for him to wake just a tiny bit easier.

The world had changed a great deal since Last Christmas. Just this year, a new tinker by the name of Dragon stepped onto the scene and joined the Guild. By Narwhal's own admission, she completely revamped their logistics and intelligence branch, rooting out several international crime syndicates by following money trails no one else noticed. And unlike other heroes, she did it without ever making a public appearance. No one knew what she looked like or where she lived.

When I asked Fortuna, she just gave me a jaunty smirk and said I ought to expect a great deal from the new tinker. That made her Cauldron, somehow; I just hoped the new security measures they were taking could keep her safe.

The Guild grew in more than just personnel and powerful capes. Hero, Yusung's old mentor, started to take on higher profile missions. Though he failed to contain the Ash Beast in Sudan in October, he did manage to drive the walking natural disaster away from civilian sectors. Dragon had since dedicated a drone to monitoring him through the Sahara with the help of some kind of solar-powered drone.

In Europe a month later, Hero, Narwhal, and a select group of Guild and local heroes managed to prevent the assassination of the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I. In doing so, Hero destroyed one Blasphemy and did something that caused the other two to disintegrate along with their sister, hopefully ending the tinkertech threat once and for all.

Fortuna wouldn't explain why, but she had been extraordinarily happy that evening, happier than I'd ever seen her. The normally taciturn woman had even tried her own hand at baking. She was annoyingly good at it, though I suspected she was good at everything.

I started as the doorbell rang. So few visitors actually used it that I knew right away who it was. If she was here, it meant I'd gotten lost in thought again and let the morning pass me by. On the other side was a young, Japanese girl of fourteen. She wore her chestnut hair in a high ponytail that suited her tank top and shorts. A black violin case was in one hand.

"Hey, Mrs. K," Alice Nohara greeted as she stepped into the house. Behind her, I could see her bike parked in my driveway.

"Hello, Alice," I greeted back. "Aren't you cold? It's December."

"Yeah, but it's also noon in Phoenix."

"Children… Fine, fine. Did you do your homework?"

"Ehehe… Yes…?" I raised my eyebrow in silent judgment. I set up my music stand and opened the book to what should have been her homework. All children were the same; if you stayed quiet, they'd fill the silence on their own. "I mean… I kinda did it…"

"How do you 'kinda' play a music score?"

"I had to help mom at the restaurant?"

"If I call Shigure, will she tell me the same?"

"No…" she looked down guiltily.

I wasn't too upset, she'd been making good progress and earnestly paid attention when I taught her. "Alright, you're forgiven. Let's go through this piece three times before moving on."

"You won't tell mom?"

"No, I won't, so long as you pay attention during the lesson," I promised her. "Really, I keep telling Shigure that music should be fun, not a chore."

"Exactly! I like the violin, I do, it's just… life gets in the way a little bit."

"That's fine, Alice. You're young. You're allowed to get distracted sometimes. Just make a bit more effort?"

"Okay, Mrs. K."

"Good. Now, from the top."

Author's Note

Short-ish chapter, but I felt like I couldn't do an intermission arc without touching on Andy's mom at all. She's not terribly interesting so I ended up cramming a lot into one place. Hopefully it read fine.

Hobak-juk is pumpkin porridge made commonly in Korea using danhobak, or kabocha squash in English. It's got a dark-green rind and a vibrantly yellow flesh that is sweeter than other pumpkins. The porridge is very sweet, nutty, and velvety smooth, with some other spices that makes it straddle the line between a meal and dessert. It's not my favorite if, but it does feel great in the cold.

Fortuna's social-fu is stupid. It's also perfect for letting someone completely empty themselves, only for her to build them up again.

Remember, way back in 2.9 when Shigure Nohara (Alice's mom) expressed an interest in getting her daughter some violin lessons? No? Well, I do. It came with a mountain of salt because "Alice" is the fanon name for Bakuda.