CHAPTER 35

  "Life is a mystery

  Everyone must stand alone

  I hear you call my name

  And it feels like home"

  -Madonna

  ...

  Penny stood in front of Nano in Matt's lab. Carl had been unusually quiet the past couple days. He seemed off. Sad even. The only thing she could get out of him was that he had "fought some aliens." There had to be more to it.

  "Nano?"

  "Yes, Penny?"

  "I'm worried about Carl. You record everything, right? Can you show me the footage from this alien fight he told me about?"

  "Are you sure, Penny? It will not be easy to watch."

  She looked into the cold, lifeless eyes of the armor.

  "I can handle it."

  Nano turned, raised his hand, and projected the video onto the wall. The footage started with Carl arriving.

  After the second champion’s death, Penny’s stomach twisted. She could watch no longer.

  "Turn it off!"

  The screen flickered and disappeared.

  "You are in distress. I’m sorry, Penny, I did not mean to upset you."

  "No, that’s not it, Nano. I just...the brutality. I didn’t know he was capable of that."

  "You should watch the rest. The Carl you see here is acting. He told me it was a performance, meant to deter this race of beings from attempting to attack our world. May I play the rest, so you understand?"

  She swallowed hard, pulse hammering in her temples, and nodded.

  "Ok."

  Nano projected the screen again. Penny watched the remainder of the footage, right up to Carl returning, armor receding, hands shaking as he tried to steady himself.

  "Now do you see?"

  "I do. This is a terrible burden for him to bear."

  "Carl is a good man. He bears the burden willingly to protect this world. To protect you."

  "I know. Thank you, Nano."

  "You are welcome."

  Penny walked back to her apartment, chest tight, with a new respect for her boyfriend, for the man behind the armor.

  Carl stood in the rift room, Royles had authorized a non-exploratory jump. Carl was going back to rift seven. He jumped through the rift. Rift seven was above the bodies of the two warriors from rift five. Their armor now held dessicated mummies.

  He flew past the armor, looking down on them with shame.

  He still couldnt let it go. He flew into rift seven and landed in the dirt. Nagato sat their, his eyes closed, head bowed.

  "Nagato."

  Without looking up he said.

  "Carl."

  "May I speak with you?"

  "Sit."

  He held his hand out to a dusty spot across from him. Carl sat.

  Nagato finally opened his eyes and looked at Carl.

  "What troubles you?"

  Carl didnt know where to start. A mosquito buzzed around his head and he swatted at it.

  "I...did something. I did it to protect my world, to protect the ones I love...but I'm afraid I went too far."

  "I see. What you do?"

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Well, some aliens threatened my world unless I fought them. They're basically inter-universal bullies. So, I pretended that all the humans from my world are as strong and dangerous as me. I killed four of their five leaders."

  "What make you strong and dangerous?"

  "I have superstrength, and my armor is very advanced."

  "I see. Tell truth, was it necessary to kill leaders?"

  "I believe it was."

  "Hmm."

  Carl swatted the annoying flying bug out of his face again.

  "What?"

  "You come here so I absolve you of guilt?"

  "I...I'm not sure why I'm here. I thought you might be the only one that understood."

  "Why you think that?"

  "You are a protector like me, you are older than me, with age comes wisdom."

  "You think me wise? We only met once."

  "Am I wrong?"

  "No."

  "What would you have done?"

  "I not know exact situation. What I see is man who did what he thought would protect family. This not bad."

  "Then why do I feel so awful?"

  "You take life. This not good feeling."

  Carl slapped at the bug, squishing it on his hand. He flicked it off.

  "I pretended to be a monster. I scared thousands of beings."

  "How many people on your world?"

  "Billions."

  "You kill four. Scales not tip."

  "I suppose your right. Thank you for talking to me. As I suspected, you are very wise."

  "I doing nothing else."

  "Uh-huh, and how are you?"

  "What?"

  "Well, I've been rambling on about my problems...how are you doing?"

  "Good. Thank you for asking. Rest of world forgets I am here. Lonely job being protector."

  "Yes, it can be. If you like I could stop by more often."

  "That would be nice."

  Matt held up the little glass disc.

  "Its a starmap. I have no idea how they did it, but there are tiny bubbles that correspond with the stars. You see that tiny black dot? I'm not entirely sure, but I think thats Jeff's home planet."

  "So it was a business card...of sorts."

  "Seems to be."

  "Thanks Matt."

  Matt handed the disk to Carl.

  "Thanks for letting me look at it man. Its a pretty cool artifact!"

  "I never did get to see your self-portrait, how did it turn out?"

  Steve grinned.

  "I forgot all about that! Hold on a second, I'll go grab it."

  Carl was sitting on Steve's couch, the TV was on, playing Bertie's house. "Jeezus, is this show all anybody watches around here?!"

  Steve was walking back in with a painting.

  "Dude...you dont like it? Its a great show. Its in its tenth season and theyre saying this is the last one."

  Carl just nodded.

  "Lets see it."

  Steve turned the painting around. It showed Steve standing center frame, his fists on his hips looking off into the distance. The armor was recreated, every detail perfect.

  "Damn thats good. You look just like Superman, but in armor!"

  "Who?"

  "Oh, shit, I keep forgetting you guys dont have Superman. Hes a hero on my old world."

  "Well, I am very heroic!"

  Carl cracked up.

  "Yeah you are buddy. You should hang it up. Ive been meaning to ask, why dont you hang any of your paintings?"

  "I dont know...when I look at them, I just see all the flaws."

  "Are you kidding me? You are an amazing artist. As a matter of fact...how much for that painting?"

  "What? What do you mean?"

  "How much to buy the painting from you?"

  "Oh, I dont sell them. Their not good enough to..."

  "Stop right there. Brother, I'm telling you they are great. Name your price, I'll make payments if I have to."

  Steve stared at Carl in disbelief. He was trying to figure out if Carl was being serious or not.

  "Don't look at me like that."

  He pulled out his wallet and flipped through it.

  "I have...a hundred and twenty six dollars. I'll give it to you right now."

  "You're serious?"

  "Oh my god...DUH!!!"

  "Umm, ok. But lets just do like, 50 bucks?"

  "No. Nothing less than a hundred. Here. Know your worth Steve-o. This will be proudly displayed in my apartment. If you ever want you sell any others, let me know. That one with the red lizards was fucking amazing too!"

  "Thanks Carl."

  "What are you thanking me for? Im the one that got an original Steven Hicks for only a hundred bucks, thank you."

  "Just, uh, promise me you won't hang it in your bedroom."

  "Dude...don't make it weird."

  Steve laughed.

  Carl was sitting on his couch, to his right, next to the window, he had hung Steve's painting. He really did like it. He was flipping through the channels when he landed on "The history network". He knew very little about this worlds history, now was as good a time as any to learn.

  He was just settling in when the rift alarm went off. He knew Steve wasnt out. He jumped up and ran out. He stood at the door to the rift room, his hand in his pocket clutching his phone, waiting for the call. The rift door clicked, unlocked, and started slowly opening. He let go of his phone and peered inside. Skeever stood there in a massive spot of armor. He struggled with each step.

  "Nano, seperate."

  Skeever stepped back and the oversized armor split into two regular suits of armor.

  "Which one are you buddy?"

  The suit on the right raised its hand. Skeever tapped it and stepped inside, then the armor receded into his skin.

  "Brought you that extra set of armor you wanted."

  "Awesome! Andy's gonna be stoked."

  "You know I was apprehensive about this. This tech...it can be dangerous in the wrong hands."

  "I know. I can personally vouch for Steve and Andy."

  "Well, I'm not bringing anymore."

  "I know. This world has three now. We are well protected. I also made Royles write up a contract. The suits will belong to me, with the government paying me five hundred dollars per suit, each month."

  "Thats smart."

  "Thank you."

  "You know, you're the only one I would do this for."

  "And I appreciate it."

  "I know you do. You took a different path than I did. I'm really proud of you."

  "Patting yourself on the back?"

  "No. We're very different now."

  "I suppose we are. Let me text Andy real quick."

  Carl pulled out his phone and asked Andy to meet him in the rift room.

  "Is he the one that got the serum?"

  "Yeah, he got the advanced healing."

  "Lucky guy, thats the best one. What's his secondary?"

  "As far as I know it hasn't manifested yet."

  Carl leaned out the door and looked down the hallway, Andy was swiping his badge at the security door.

  "Here he comes. Hey Andy, I got a present for you."

  He motioned toward the suit. Andy stuck his head around the corner.

  "No way!"

  "Yep."

  "Oh man, thanks Carl."

  "Well, for, uh...reasons. I still own it, but its yours to use as long as I'm still breathing."

  "That works for me! Thank you."

  Carl pointed at Skeever.

  "Thats the man to thank."

  Andy stuck out his hand and Skeever shook it.

  "No probl...what the fuck?"

  Andy's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor convulsing.

  "Oh shit...what did you do?"

  Skeever looked at him confused.

  "Nothing, I just shook his hand."

  Carl picked Andy up and ran to the infirmary, Skeever trailing behind him.

  "MATT! I need you!"

  Matt came running out of the lab.

  "Whats going...oh, lay him on that bed."

  Carl did as he was told and stood back.

  "Pulse is strong."

  He shined a light in Andy's eyes, and felt his neck.

  "His body seems fine, what happened?"

  Skeever moved to stand next to Matt.

  "He shook my hand...thats it."

  "I dont..."

  Andy gasped, his eyes opened.

  "What the fuck was that?!"

  Matt touched his hand.

  "Andy, What happened?"

  "AAAAH...DONT TOUCH ME!"

  Carl and Matt looked at each other.

  Skeever leaned down.

  "Andy, breathe. I think I know what this is. Just now, did you see pieces of Matt's life? His memories?"

  Andy's nose was bleeding, he nodded.

  "Yes, what is happening to me?"

  "Your second power just manifested. Before shaking my hand, when's the last time you had skin to skin contact with someone?"

  "I dont know, its been awhile."

  "Ok, so maybe it didnt just manifest, but, your secondary power is uh, well it doesn't have a technical name. Ive only seen one other person get it, but you absorb knowledge. Had you touched someone like Matt here, the first time, you would have gotten a flood of his knowledge and been fine. You touched me though, I've been alive for millenia, your brain was overloaded."

  Andy blinked rapidly at Skeever as he tried to process the information.

  "You'll be alright, but I suggest you buy a pair of comfortable gloves."

  "You have...so much pain."

  "I do. I'm sorry you had to see it."

  Carl looked at Skeever thoughtfully, a new understanding in his eyes.

  "I should go. Give him some Ibuprofen and let him rest. He'll be up on his feet by tomorrow."

  Matt nodded.

  Skeever looked at Carl.

  "Walk with me."

  They headed back to the rift room.

  "I'm sorry about this."

  "You didnt know...hell, I didnt know."

  "I'm going to head back."

  Carl held up his fist, Skeever smiled and bumped it.

  "Don't be a stranger."

  "I won't. I've got some vacation saved up, I want to take Penny to see the other side sometime soon."

  "Good. 26 and Robbie will both be glad to see you. They got an apartment together in the mirror dimension."

  "Ok."

  "Bye."

  "...and Andy should be back on his feet by tomorrow. He's still got to bond with the suit."

  "You weren't wearing your body cam today, so I asked Nano for the footage. Carl..."

  "You saw that huh?"

  "I did."

  "And?"

  Royles stared intensely at Carl for a moment. Then he reached into his bottom drawer and retrieved two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. He poured and pushed a glass over to Carl. They tapped their glasses together.

  "To the Sentinel."

  Carl smiled.

  "I'll drink to that."

  They threw it back at the same time.