Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 388 TOUCHY

“Weston! How are you doing this?!” Anne yelled from my back as I flew us off the clifface. Dropping down to be closer to the water I helped her finagle herself to be riding me in a piggyback hold. 

“Didn’t I tell you? I learned to fly recently,” I said. She hit the back of my head. 

“No you didn’t tell me! How the hell do you learn to fly?!” She yelled in my ear. 

“Quiet it down. We aren’t going overly fast. And-it-is-still new,” I said, making us start to wobble. “Don’t know if I can-” I turned over so her back was to the ocean. She started to scream as I let go of a leg. 

Holding onto my neck for dear life she began to scream as I felt my lifeforce leave me. I cursed and moved back into Zetsu as I righted us. “Weston! I’ll kill you!” She yelled as I moved to grab her legs again. 

“You’re not far from it. Sorry, I couldn’t help it. But you started using your Absorption power again.”

“I did?” She asked, growing nervous. 

“It’s fine, calm down, just turn it off. There you go. That’s it,” I said, releasing the Zetsu. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” I lied.  

“You should be sorry,” she mumbled in my ear as she tightened her grip on me. “Can’t believe you did that.” I didn’t answer, shaking my head as I chuckled. “What other powers did you happen to suddenly manifest?” 

“No idea,” I said. “Still learning all I can do.”

“C-can I learn new stuff?” She asked. 

“You can with your power,” I said. I remembered that she had stolen the powers of other heroes in canon. But that was random…or was it related to her Superpower Symmetry Weakness? I didn’t know. “Now that you can control it a little it might be good to practice it.” 

“Practice on you?” She asked, perking up. 

“Hell no. I like my powers,” I said. “Don’t worry. There are plenty of bad mutants out there,” I assured. 

“Like what you will be fighting as an X-Man?” She mumbled. 

“Perhaps,” I said with a nod. Leaving it at that her emotions were still all over the place. I decided to speed up. 

“Why did I let you talk me into taking my gloves off? It’s so cold,” she said. 

“Sorry, but get used to wearing long sleeves. You won’t be needing them anymore,” I said. 

“You really think so?” She asked. Excitement emitting from her like a ray of sunshine. 

“I know so. Look, there’s Long Island,” I said. Most people considered New York the center of the world. So many people on such a small island it was mostly industrialized. But there were plenty of suburbs and other cities that were a part of the most populated area in the country. 

“Is that a light house?” Anne asked, awe in her voice. 

“It is,” I said. We were going about 35 miles per hour. The light house wasn’t overly tall. A black exterior there was a small building built beside it. I raised up higher as we moved closer to the coast. Feeling my own awe as we approached the city from the air. I skirted the top of the lighthouse and found more trees in the area than I expected. In truth even my mental picture of Long Island was an industrialized mecha. 

We rose up seeing plenty of buildings, but nothing too huge. I decided to head West toward New York as we continued on. 

“Where are we going?” Anne asked, holding tightly onto me. 

“Going somewhere a little more populated,” I said. In another 15 minutes I was landing us behind a large mall. Anne got off of me reluctantly. 

“Don’t know why you can’t keep carrying me,” she mumbled, looking away shyly. 

“Because, I want to make a bet with you,” I said. Leaning forward I kissed her lips, causing her to blush and crack a smile. 

“What kind of bet?” 

“A touching bet,” I said. She looked away, noticing that we were alone. 

“Weston, I thought this was a date.” 

“It is a date, not touching each other bet. But touching other people,” I said. Even I heard it. “Not in a sexual way.” 

“Oh,” she said, her blush still there. 

“I am going to bet you $20 that you can’t touch someone for at least 5 seconds. Someone other than me,” I clarified. 

“What?” She asked, getting nervous once more. 

“Are you an owl or something? Stop with the whats.”

“Owls say who,” she said. 

“Then start acting like an owl and start looking for who you will be touching,” I said. Grabbing her hand she flinched but I dragged her along with me away from the dumpsters. All around us were cars parked outside the mall. People streaming in and out as they went about their Saturday evening. 

“Now, every person you touch for 5 full seconds, will earn you $20. That $20 will go into a pot that will be used for your and my date,” I said. I pulled $20 from my status screen. Though I had thrown the money in from Domination world, the money was automatically converted to the current currency USD in Marvel World. 

“I have to touch people?” Anne asked, crossing her arms under her breasts. “Why?” 

“Because you need practice,” I said. 

“I don’t know if I’m ready. You just did whatever you did like 40 minutes ago. I can’t go from not touching people to touching them in less than an hour.”

“I don’t know. You and I started touching pretty quick,” I said. She hit my stomach, making me laugh. “Now, I will make it easy for you.” I reached out and grabbed her hand. “1-2-3-4-5.” I counted and when I hit 5 I let her go and gave her $20. “Very good. $20 for 5 seconds of work Anne. That’s like $15,000 an hour. You start working hard and you could have the greatest date in the world lined up soon enough.”

“What do we do on this date?” She asked. 

“Anything. Buy new clothes. Get food. See a movie. Hell, you touch enough people you could buy a car for all I care.”

“And how much money do you have?” She asked.

 
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. Anne knew I had a trust set up from the $3 million settlement I got from my parent’s and sister’s death. But I hadn’t touched that money yet. I had it earmarked for later. “Just go up to people. And start touching them.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” she said as we walked into the mall. Anne stiffened as someone used the door in front of us. She began to leak fear outward as there was an awkward shuffle of who was in whose way. I rolled my eyes. 

“Excuse me,” I said, stopping the person in front of us. She was an older woman in her 50s. Tan skin that had seen better days she looked like an old biker chick. “My girlfriend loves your tattoo.” I pointed at the heart on her forearm. “She was thinking of getting one like it. Minus the name of course. You mind if she looks at it?” 

“This old thing?” The old woman asked. She had pure white teeth and blonde hair, obviously liking the compliment as she showed the tattoo. “I got this for Bud. That jackass got my name too.”

“What happened to Bud?” I asked, keeping a smile on my face as I pushed Anne toward her. 

“Died in a crash,” she said, annoyed. “Idiot of a man.”

“That’s too bad,” I said. Anne looked at the tattoo, licking her lips, her fingers hovering over the woman’s arm for a second. But her nervousness continued to rise. 

“You alright, deary?” The older woman asked as the seconds ticked away. 

“Yeah,” Anne squeaked. Sweat breaking out on her forehead. Her Haki was too nervous. I had to rethink. 

“And 5,” I said. “Thank you for your time.” I said to the old woman and dragged Anne to a different door. I could feel that took a lot out of her. But I had to get through to her. Taking her into the mall we found an unused bench and I sat her down. It was a long time before she calmed down enough for me to talk to her. All the while my hand held onto hers.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. 

Tears in her eyes as she looked up at me. “You know what’s wrong. Weston, we talked about this for hours on end.” I did know what was wrong. Old me and Anne had discussed how much we felt like we were missing out. Too scared to be near new people. Never showing skin, just in case. It got so bad for both of us that we locked up, unable to move if there were too many people nearby. 

“I don’t know how you recovered so quickly, but I…” 

“I haven’t been dealing with this for years,” I said. “Anne, you thought you would kill people if they touched you. I understand that it is hard, but I want you to trust me.” I frowned, seeing that she was about broken. “Let’s experiment first.” I reached out my hand.

“I know you are scared that you’ll touch someone and accidentally use your power. Thus we need to prove that you won’t do it by accident. I want you to touch my hand. For a long time. Then randomly do what you do to activate your power. I will tell you when you activate it,” I said. 

“What will that do?” 

“It will assure you that if I sense even the least bit of lifeforce moving from them into you, I can pull your hand away,” I said. “You know as well as I do that it takes a few seconds to become dangerous. Today is a simple exercise. Hold someone’s hand for 5 seconds. I don’t expect you to hug them for extended periods of time. Keep it simple. In fact, first we will do 1 second. Then move up to 2, then 3, and up to 5.”

“And you’ll give me $20 each time?” She asked, cracking a smile. 

I nodded. “All the while if I sense that you are accidentally using your powers, I will stop it from doing anyone harm. Can you trust me?” I asked.

“You know I can,” she said, fighting more tears. 

“Then trust me. I won’t put you or anyone else in harm’s way,” I said.

It took time. A long time. It was near 7PM before she walked up to someone. It was a girl her own age. Asking to feel a piercing in the girl’s ear. Anne didn’t have any piercings. But the girl agreed and Anne counted to 1 and let go. She was a bundle of nerves and when she stepped away she was shaking in fear. But also exuded happiness for having done it. The next person was an older man who she asked his name and shook his hand. She counted to 2 and got a little more confidence. The next person was a small boy. He had tripped in front of us. Anne hesitated but I pushed her to him. She helped him up, counting slowly all the while. The boy thanked her, and to my surprise Anne held onto him counting all the way to 5. 

“You did it,” I said, the boy running off to his parents.

“I could have killed him,” she mumbled. 

“As could anyone with a gun,” I said. “You don’t see that happening all that often though, do you?” I asked. 

“Sometimes,” she said. 

“Yep. Which is why it’s important to trust the person with a gun,” I said. “I trust you with your power, Anne. You should start trusting yourself.”

She frowned, getting choked up. “When did you become a fortune cookie?”

I chuckled. “Don’t know,” I said. She took my hand and we continued on down the mall. Someone nudged her, she stiffened but kept walking.

“Money please,” she said, and I handed her $60 which put a bigger smile on her face. She walked into a store and bought a purse. As we were in line to pay she noticed someone with an engagement ring. 

“Oh my god, that is gorgeous,” Anne said. “How long have you been engaged?” 

“A week,” the stranger said, beaming a smile as she showed the ring. Anne hesitated but took the woman’s hand, pretending to take a closer look. Her eyes wide she continued holding the woman’s hand for 10 seconds. 

“You’re so lucky,” Anne said. 

“Thank you. I’m sure it will happen to you someday,” the stranger said, giving me a wink. I rolled my eyes but I could feel Anne’s heart flutter.

“That’s $40,” Anne said, finally enjoying the game. I took the money out and handed it to her. She giggled, pulling me down for a kiss on the cheek and she was a new person again. Laughing and giggling as she took me to this or that store. 

She tried the tattoo trick on someone else. And was bumping into people, or shaking their hands for extended periods of time, more than happy to earn money each time. We eventually came to yet another girlie store and to my surprise she admitted, “I want a piercing.”

“Where?” I asked, studying her. She had pale skin, light brown hair and 2 white streaks of hair framing her face. I could see that piercings would look good on her anywhere. I continued looking down until I was staring at her chest. 

She blushed, her hands moving to cover her nipples. “No, my nose,” she said. 

“Maybe you should get your ears pierced first,” I noted. 

“Fine,” she said. Stepping up to the woman at the counter they let her right in. Allowing her to do her nose and ears at the same time. So I waited around for an hour as they sterilized and walked her through the care. She didn’t whine at all as they pierced her. More scared to have someone touching her for a long time than fearing the pain. When it was all said and done I was surprised that the piercings suited her so well. There was a little swelling but she had a wide smile on her face. 

“How much did that get me?” She asked. 

“Enough to pay for the piercings,” I said. Paying the surprising $200 for the simple procedure. “Jeez, you’re an expensive date.”

“I’m worth it though,” Anne said. 

“Where to now?” I asked. 

“Movie,” she decided on. “I’m getting tired.” 

“Fair enough,” I said, still holding her bags of clothes she had purchased. My other hand was holding hers and we were just in time to catch a showing of a new romance movie. I rolled my eyes but accepted my fate. I somehow carried her bags, a big tub of popcorn, and all the candy she could point out. Sitting in the already darkened theater she was a bundle of energy as the movie started. 

I did my best to stay awake, but it was a twisted Marvel World version of ‘She’s out of your League’. The protagonist was somehow more whiny than the version I remembered. Tired from my early morning, testing for the X-Men, and every other little thing going on I fell asleep. 

It wasn’t until the movie and credits were over and the lights turned on that I woke up. Finding Anne asleep next to me I shook her awake. Covered in popcorn and candy she sat up groggily as the ushers continued to sweep the floor in the empty theater. 

“Time to head back,” I said.

“Carry me,” Anne pleaded after a big yawn. 

“Okay,” I said, and picked her up. Throwing her on my back as I grabbed her bags. She pretended to be asleep as I carried her out, but once we were outside she jumped off, then back onto my back in another piggyback ride. 

I could feel her contentment as we left the theater. No car needed. I just had to find a secluded area so I could fly away. 

“Are we going back to the school?” Anne asked. 

“You are,” I said.

“What about you?” She asked, nervous. 

“I’m gonna…find a hotel or something,” I said. I didn’t want to go back to the dorm and I felt it was time to get to know the superhero capital of the world. I didn’t have anything to do until Monday so it was a good time to check on where Peter Parker, maybe Dr. Strange, and a few other heroes were in their lives. 

“Well I want to stay with you,” Anne said, her hand wrapping tighter around my neck. 

“Oh yeah?” I asked. I looked back to her. She was nervous but serious. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with Anne, but company sounded better than sleeping alone. “Okay.”