There was a phantom marching band on the loose. You could walk around a ten block area and hear them. They'd be faint and slowly swell, until it seemed they were upon you.
Sully and I had been out walking the night they first tread upon my city.
We were walking to Sonic where I felt certain inept service awaited.
As we walked on Navaho we thought we could hear a band.
I hadn't the slightest where the sound was coming from. As we neared Wornall the sound crescendoed. The sound still seemed to come from behind us.
The sound of cars nullified the sound of the band as we walked north on Wornall. A gap in traffic and we again heard it.
Who were they?
Where were they?
We arrived at Sonic to the sight of a small throng of 15 year old girls dressed as an 18 year old would. We bought food and left.
Sully noticed something.
“Wasn't there a store where all this rubble is?”
I looked.
“Yup, a music store,” I kept walking.
Sully didn't.
“Maybe the Misters should deal with this.”
“Maybe.”
We continued home where we ate, watched TV, parted. Then I slept, subsequently waking and driving out to North KC.
I studied as Stephanie Yeo and her friends scrapbooked. I learned much. After they exhausted catching up on each others' lives, Jera parted. Then eyes were upon me.
“This is him?” Asked Amanda. Steph replied, “yup.”
Amanda proceeded, “we used to be superheroes, too. I was No Liquor Girl, and Steph was No Wicker Woman. She saw that you were a superhero and after making sure that you were coming we invited our old nemesis over. We used to battle him to a stalemate. With you here, the odds are in our favor.”
“You invited your nemesis over? Why would you do that?”
“We haven't heard from him in years, he'd lost track of us. And he hasn't been in the news for doing anything wrong for a long while.”
“So you invited him over?”
Steph answered, “yup, now we have to gear up. He'll be here soon.”
I frowned. Steph and Amanda went to the bathroom and bedroom, respectively. The 'Duo of No' emerged a few minutes later.
“Do you have your outfit, Steven?” asked No Wicker Woman.
“We've been talking about formal wear for the Misters, I don't have any with me. I don't even know my powers.”
I did have a costume with me. I always did and I knew some of my powers, just not my Mister power. Could CD show up this far north if the need arose?
I didn't get to trouble myself with that concern for long, as there was a knock on the door.
“That'll be him!” Amanda exclaimed.
And it was.
Mr. Lavargio.
“Did you want to do this outside?”
“Ok,” said No Liquor Girl.
NWW carried a couple of boxes out onto the lawn. NLG asked for my assistance in carrying some of the Yeo family liquor to the front lawn.
The three of them began stretching. I eyeballed Lavargio.
He was about 6'1” and a tad overweight. His outfit appeared to be inspired by Wesley's Dread Pirate Roberts, but with a fedora atop his cowled head.
Steph opened one of the boxes and began pulling out wicker.
Lavargio let out a chuckle and looked my way.
“I'm her origin story. I told everyone that she really liked wicker. I purposely planted the seed in many minds. People asked me what gifts to get her for her wedding, I said wicker. Many followed. Just over half of all her wedding gifts wound up being wicker related, right Steph?”
“Sounds about right.”
“How is your husband, Tom, right?”
“Yeah, Tom. He's really taking to his new job.”
“Oh, that's good.”
Watching this exchange reminded me of Dr. Everyone, The Seer, one small guy and Dodge City.
Those were rivalries.
Those were nemeses.
What was I watching now?
Lavargio looked back to me.
“She was filled with such a righteous rage it unlocked her hidden potential.”
His attention returned to Steph.
“You thought you'd tip the scale in your favor with a third, this fellow from the Misters. As your trick is so obvious I should confess to you I have something that could tilt things in my favor this time. I've been branded. I now posses strength the likes of which I'd never imagined.”
“We'll see,” Steph retorted.
Crap, a branded guy.
All stretching ceased.
Combat stances were assumed.
I followed suit.
Lavargio darted towards No Liquor Girl, who grabbed a bottle of something blue by the neck and torqued it into the air.
She lashed her left palm towards bottle and it became an energy form.
An ethereal, ghostly image of the bottle that had just been hung in the air.
Her right palm struck the bottle and it rocketed at Lavargio.
He dodged and most everything seemed to speed up at this point.
NLG flipped three bottles into the air, unleashing a brilliant barrage of ballistic bottles.
One collided with Lavargio, staggering him for only moments.
I looked on.
Lavargio was closing in on NLG but was struck with a wicker ray.
A beam constructed of solid wicker, which began raveling around Lavargio.
I looked over and watched as the wicker at Steph's feet vanished.
It appeared to sink into the ground and come out of her hands.
Lavargio smiled.
His right hand glowed a wild red.
He hopped forward and made contact with NLG.
The red flowed from him until it was no longer seen.
Amanda collapsed.
Two ghost bottles of whiskey still hung in the air.
Lavargio turned to NWW, looking like a mummy.
His pace slowed.
It was obvious that creating the wicker womb drained Steph significantly.
I wondered at this point how these things ended in a stalemate.
Lavargio looked over to me, still walking towards Steph, so slowly, and offered an explanation.
“Typically, I keep walking towards her and reach her. She passes out as she completes the wicker sarcophagus. They usually wake as I bust free and we all just call it a day.”
Oh, ok.
I watched it all play out as he described.
Steph passed out.
The wicker encased Lavargio.
Amanda was still out.
But Lavargio was branded now, stronger than before.
It took him only a minute to bust out of the wicker.
He looked to me.
“Well, they're typically out for another 10 minutes. Regardless of how this goes, I don't imagine 10 minutes will be required.”
He darted towards me and buried his fist into my gut.
I was pressed backwards 5 inches and my left heel caught in the lawn and that shoe came off while the right one dug a 1 inch deep ditch.
I grimaced.
Seldom does Steven get hit, luckily it didn't seem any worse as Steven.
Didn't used to be that way.
My damage resistance was still far from immunity.
“Ow.”
My hands instinctively moved to where my body was most recently hit and were of no use as the second hit came towards my chin.
Lavargio sent me end over end.
I collected my thoughts, admired the well-groomed grass, the scent. It rained the day before, everything still fresh.
“Geez, I've not hit anybody since getting this strength. Well, not that I know of, none of us know what we do in that hour... but anyways, are you done?”
“What if I am?”
“I dunno. It's never come up.”
I pushed up far enough to get my knees beneath me.
“Well, I guess I'm still good to go.”
I looked around at everything.
Lavargio just stood, waiting for me to return to my feet.
“You really are a sport,” I stated.
I hopped up and made for the ghost bottles and flailed my arms at them, trying to send them his way.
But my arms went right through.
He was almost upon me.
Plan B.
I ran right at him, chicken style, and dodged to my left at the last moment, evading a forearm in the process.
I sent my right foot towards his shin while we were side to side.
It found its mark.
“Ack,” he stated.
I kept going the direction I was heading.
I scooped up a golf ball sized stone.
He didn't falter long and was gaining on me.
I knew a skill I possessed as Steven, even if I didn't know what powers I possessed.
Jaywalking.
I made it to the larger street and deftly made my way to the other side.
He stood on the other side, watching cars, carefully trying to find the gap in the pattern.
He saw his moment.
At the three-quarter mark I let the rock fly, aiming for that that right shin.
Again the mark was found. He grimaced.
As he neared me, I saw my moment and made my way to the other side.
This dance continued for some time.
Despite how tough I knew the branded to be, I still felt a car could take him out.
I was way better at this part than him.
But then,
“You win.”
“What?”
“My leg hurts and I have poor cardio. Tell the girls they've won, this time. It was a pleasure meeting you, Steven. Or is it Mister Scratch.”
“I suppose either will do.”
He smiled and was on his way.
I walked back towards the Yeo house and became acutely aware that my left shoe was not on.
“Ow.”
I balanced on my right foot while surveying the bottom of my left.
A significant piece of gravel was there embedded. I looked back towards the larger street and by the small blood smudges it was apparent that it had been there for a bit.
In fact when I looked at the path ahead of me towards Steph's it became clear that it'd been there for quite some time.
I followed my bloody footprint all the way back.
Walking on my right foot proper and the ball of the left.
It was then and there that I decided I wanted a sidekick again.
And no fighting as Steven until I figure out a power.