Chinatown

[gone_byebye]

The Firehouse isn't particularly far from Chinatown, at least not if you're in the mood for it. It's warm and sunny this time of day and year, so there's quite a few people on the streets of New York as Ray opens the door into the alley. "Come on, Tyler," he says. "Let's move before the spud decides to tag along."

Comments

[basic_powers]

he doesn't really need anymore encouragement than that to dart out of the firehouse and onto the sidewalk, glancing up for any sign of the green-slimed free-roaming appetite.

"We gonna walk there?"

[gone_byebye]

"Ecto has a hard time finding a parking space in Chinatown that she fits," Ray says. "Unless she goes into bot mode while we're in the store, and then she's just going to wind up a tourist photo op. We can walk, or we can take the subway."

[basic_powers]

"...walking would be better." Tyler says after a moment of thought. walking might take longer, and then Tyler can work out everything.

[gone_byebye]

"All right," Ray says, and starts down the sidewalk. "You wanna talk about it, or just look at the admittedly pretty grubby scenery?"

[basic_powers]

"...I think I'll talk about it. At least as far as I can figure stuff out." Tyler shrugs. "Okay, so I told you about how my conversation with Ron was interrupted by an alien space scout, and i got sampled while trying to rescue him, only to have him rescue me?"

[gone_byebye]

"Right," says Ray, who may be the only person in New York who can get away with this kind of conversation on the street and not even have the Trekkies look twice.

[basic_powers]

"And the career fair after that, where I ended up being rescued by Cecil and Malphast." He seriously doubts anyone is taking him seriously. Who looks at a kid his age spouting stuff like this, and thinks that he's speaking truthfully? Really! "Right after that, the first invasion force tried hitting home, but my parents and a bunch of other superteams fought those guys off. Then the second larger force came and they were actually blowing up the school, there was a big battle so Moon Shadow showed up to fight and Cecil saw RIGHT through the disguise. Turns out going up top to help was a bad plan, cause the aliens were actually looking for me, cause it was my DNA they sampled to make a virus that would turn all of Earth's kids into their species."

[gone_byebye]

Well, given that Ray has to escort the Deep One ambassador to the M&M Store in Times Square on a monthly basis, you never really know.

"Huh boy. Why were they looking for you in particular?"

[basic_powers]

"When the scout first hit Earth, it was looking for a human to draw a sample from. At first it found Ron, but it couldn't get a sample because he was half-human, but when Moon Shadow tried to help...it sampled from him. Before it go destroyed the scout sent a signal to the fleet...and they needed me because I was the person they took the sample from to base the virus on."

[gone_byebye]

"Gotcha," says Ray. "Coming to otherworldly attention like that's never a good sign. I know the feeling, believe me."

[basic_powers]

"I didn't know they were looking for me at the time, and I ended up getting caught with Miss Kyle, and we ended up fighting them, but not before one of the last ones managed to get the viral injector thingie into my foot, and then I ended up running back into the school so they could put me into statis to stop the virus from completeing it's primary mutation cycle, and that chamber was a lot like falling asleep." And he has to inhale right now cause that was a lot of words. "And I thought I was dreaming it at first, but I think I was experiencing Principal Cranston's memories and I found out why PS238 got built and why he's in charge and has to wear a metal headband. Turned out he was psychic and he'd been using his powers to avoid all kinds of traps when he was running for president...and to get a good used car."

[gone_byebye]

"... you're getting extra ice cream," is all Ray says at that. "Fortunately, we've only got a few blocks more to go- welcome to Chinatown, by the way."

New York City's Chinatown is the third largest concentration of Chinese in the world outside the actual countries of China and Taiwan. Welcome to a land of bilingual street signs and one-and-a-half-lingual shop windows- not everybody here bothers putting English up on the store fronts, at least not on the side streets.

[basic_powers]

...He's not even close to being done yet.

"Turns out some ..I don't know what, but there was this one big butthead of a senator who...Ray what's the word for when someone moves stuff so bad things happen without actually doing anything illegal?"

[gone_byebye]

"'Manipulating' comes to mind," Ray says. "'Being a total jerkweasel' does, too."

[basic_powers]

"That's what some guy was doing to Mr. Cranston. Except he was trying to make it look like Cranston was a guy who could put thoughts into peoples heads." There's a joke somewhere in there about teachers. "Any rate...the Revenant did some stuff to arrange for Cranston to have protection from...if you'll believe this, all of the teachers at my school save for Miss Oberon and Mr. Alloy Every other teacher at ps238 was part of the same superteam. It's why there's a space station buried under the school. Cranston couldn't stay in office with his powers out like that...so he left and had to get fitted with something that made him unable to hear thoughts. It worked. Kinda. Turned out Cranston had another power, and that was lifting things with his mind. He couldn't do more than lift a pen or press a button though."

"Anyway, right after I went into statis the aliens attacked the school and nearly caved in the area where I was. Dr. Newby had to remove the band so Cranston could hold up the ceiling and keep us alive. Except now that band may've screwed up his head for life."

[gone_byebye]

"Wearing that kind of psychic interference device for that long is bound to leave a mark," Ray says. "I'm surprised he wasn't having nosebleeds on a regular basis."

[basic_powers]

"Actually it got yanked out by accident when one of the rescuers surprised Dr. Newby while she was removing it. It was an all-purpose metapower disabling thingie I think, I don't know how it worked just that when that happened I got a headache too."

Freaking yeeeeouch.

"After that Mr. Clay and the other teachers started setting up a virtual reality thing so I could keep up with classes while in statis. But when they left, Tom came and had my quantum footstep dragged back to the castle. Something there had decided I was going to be the person to make a really big choice."

"I had to decide if people were going to continue getting superpowers or not."

[gone_byebye]

See the icon?

yeah. Like that.

[basic_powers]

"I said yes, Ray." Tyler responds, glancing at the non-english signs in the stores. "...Turned out that Prospero had been sent by his people to stop those aliens from taking over, and put a doomsday device that'd turn the planet into space dust if there was any of the virus left. And he knew I had been put into the statis chamber with the virus."

"So the crappiest thing in comicbooks had to happen to prevent the world from getting blown up."

[gone_byebye]

"... oh no."

[basic_powers]

"I got cloned. The clone didn't have a brain at first, just an artificial remote Angie and VonFogg...VONFOGG. Gah!" Tyler shakes his head making an ewwww face. "They put the remote in the brain so I could go around school, but I didn't know it was a clone body, just thought it was a VR program or a robot drone Mr. Clay had made..."

"And when my mind was in three places at once..." Castle, statis and clone. "I found out my parents had set up a base nearby. They moved into town."

[gone_byebye]

"Come to think of it, I'm surprised you're not getting nosebleeds at this point," Ray says. "Considering everything stacking up so far."

[basic_powers]

"Me too. Anyway, after I made my choice I ended up getting sling-shot back into the statis chamber, and the surge from that...went into the remote and activated it's super powers." He continues before rubbing his throat and wincing. "We almost there?"

He's just a little thirsty.

[gone_byebye]

"Next block," Ray says. "We turn left at the corner. It's on the other side of the street, under a flag."

[basic_powers]

Okay. He can probably finish up and then get a nice big drink of water shortly.

"You something, I thought it was kinda odd that Charles was able to remember the Rock of Judgement from the four square game. I mean, Chaos and Order said they'd block his memories." Sigh. "I shoulda known something was up with that. I think they were using me and Charles to open a portal so their smaller forces..imps and cherubs could come through and start egging the grownups on at each other. I was up on the tower for the Nuclear family..that's Susie's family, and it turns out Julie's her cousin.. for a barbeque picnic when the two forces started messing with the adults and some crystalpeople. Then two of them spotted me remote controlling the clone, cause the powers made me break out of the crystals they'd imprisoned me..and decided to fix that and his powers."

"They woke him up and used his powers to take out the remote control. He grew his own brain, but not before Mom and Dad took him to their headquarter's medbay, thinking he was me."

[gone_byebye]

"There is no possible way this story can end well," Ray says. Then: "... sorry."

[basic_powers]

This is the sort of story child psychologists would just stare at before drowning themselves in bourbon.

"...yeah. So. They're all super-excited and get him special armor and everything while the imps mess around with his powers. Eventually they left him alone but not before they 'fixed' his powers so that for every 'good' use of his powers, an equally bad thing would happen." Sigh. "I got told this afterwards, cause after the Order and Chaos scouts booted me out of the remote, it broke the statis chamber and Dr. Newby had to find a cure for the disease."

There's a faint smile here.

"Harold and Julie ended up saving my life. Harold dampened down Julie's powers so Dr. Newby could get blood and super-powered white blood cells from her. Then Harold reactivated the stuff in the blood so it'd take out the virus. I felt icky for a while, but at least the world was mostly safe from alien diseases."

"When I got back to my room though, Toby was there waiting and wanting me to help him with his powers, which he couldn't STOP. First time he teleported out he turned my shirt into fruit rollups. Second time it was sixlets and he tried to go to Cecil for answers. Third time he turned all the stuff I was wearing into a Tron Costume. And then he went to ask Mr. Cranston for help, cause his brain was leaking out his thoughts. Toby did something about the thoughts leaking out, but it cost Mr. Cranston his 'redemption'. They got my parents to...agree that we were brothers and legally adopt Toby."

"By the time that was over with, the portal had opened up enough that more Chaos and Order scouts could come through. And then they started all the superheroes fighting, so they'd open the portal wider...And only kids could see the imps so Toby was trying to help Cecil and Malphast out, and I had to track them all down. We managed to beat the invading forces, but I had to watch Cecil, who was all warped from accidents he'd had in other dimensions on the way towards rescuing me, fight my parents godzilla-style!"

"Ray I don't think there's enough vacation ANYWHERE for this!!!"

[gone_byebye]

"... I could ask Romana about the Zero Room on her TARDIS," Ray says. "It's a space of absolute stillness, completely separated from the flow of space and time. It's good for sleeping in when things are getting really bad. But other than that... yeah, this is going to take a while to work with."

[basic_powers]

"...all of that stuff happened in a month." Tyler squeaks out after a moment. "At least school is gonna be out in a few weeks."

[gone_byebye]

"Tyler, I hate to say this, but your life is October at this point," Ray says. "You're getting extra ice cream now that we're here."

[basic_powers]

"Phbbbbbbbbbhht."

...That as witty as he's going to get right now folks.

"...Ray? What does Zen Butter taste like?"

[gone_byebye]

"Peanut butter with black sesame seeds," Ray says. "I've had it before."

[basic_powers]

Bleh.

Tyler looks over the menu anyways.

"Vanilla with blueberry sauce? And the red bean stuff doesn't look too bad. For being made with beans." Pause. "And a big glass of water? All the talking made me thirsty."

[gone_byebye]

"Red bean ice cream is really good," Ray says. "Sweet and a little grainy. Ma'am, give my companion here everything he ordered, please. And one of the T-shirts. The orange one- no, make that two, he's got a brother back home."

[basic_powers]

"Sure thing Mr. Stantz."

And while holding the t-shirts and waiting for his ice cream..Tyler ventures a question.


"...Ray? ...am I messed up?"

[gone_byebye]

Ray blinks a few times at that. "No," he says after a while, "no, I don't think so..."

Then again, consider who he lives with.

"But you're in one heck of a tough situation. Dr. Venkman would probably have a lot more to say about it than I could. Assuming you trusted Dr. Venkman with any kind of worry like that, of course."

[basic_powers]

"Knowing Venkman he'd probably make clone jokes. I trust Venkman about as far as I can shove a putty egg under his mattress." Oh hey, his ice cream's here. Time to find a nice place to sit for a while.

[gone_byebye]

It's going to have to be outside. There's no room in the shop for a seat. Fortunately there's a small park around the corner, and there's an available bench.

"Figured as much," Ray says. "Well, okay. There's other people who might be able to help you out more than I could, to be honest. I freely admit I'm a little bit far along on the spectrum of Normal to Froot Loops compared to most people, but I know a guy in Milliways who might be a step up..."

[basic_powers]

"...yeh?" Tyler says around a careful mouthful of blueberry, red bean and vanilla. "Who is he?"

[gone_byebye]

"His name's Malcolm Crowe," says Ray. "He's been in Milliways for a while- he's dead, but it's just Milliways kind of dead. He's a psychologist who works with all the different types in Milliways. Pete's gone to see him once or twice."

[basic_powers]

"...you think I should talk to him about this stuff? And...it'll be okay?"

[gone_byebye]

"It'll definitely be okay," Ray says. "I think he can help, definitely."

[basic_powers]

Ray's going to find himself recieving another hug from Tyler.

"Thanks Ray. For everything."

[gone_byebye]

Ray smiles and ruffles Tyler's hair with his free hand.

"No problem, kid."