Infinity Legends

Chapter 40: The Visit

It was a beautiful day in campus, and for the first time in months Barry had agreed to work outside of their cramped-up apartment. Luca insisted that, their broken window still being covered by cardboard, the room was too dark and depressive, and that Barry should consider working in a more inspiring environment.

Barry failed to see how inspiration was relevant to the purely logical exercise of screening the most suitable players for the Infinity Riders, but Luca’s promise to pay for coffee and bagels had sold the idea. That had led them to the closest coffee shop, crowded by students enjoying their Sundays. Some wore sports clothes from their morning exercises, other were still on their party outfits from the previous night, relying on caffeine to stay on their feet.

Luca was included on the first group, despite not having worked out, while Barry wore the usual monochromatic outfit.

“Here you go!” Luca dished out an everything bagel before his friend then settled down across the table with two cups of coffee.

Barry barely raised his eyes from the computer screen to bite the bagel.

“Still going through potential snipers?” Luca asked.

“Uhum,” Barry munched on the dough.

“Why though?” Luca asked. “That guy from yesterday was great… despite shooting my ship.”

“The System has found another two better options.”

“How much better?”

Barry thought for a second. “Marginally. But it is still something.”

“Man, your System is great. Really. But it doesn’t account for some very important factors that Gahagan showed yesterday.”

“Such as?” Barry finally looked at his friend, leaning back on the café booth.

“Initiative, creativity, tactical thinking…” Luca counted on his fingers. “The guy tracked us down to a remote planet, killed two of us and disabled our tank all so he could get our attention! I’d rather have someone marginally weaker but with that kind of heart than a marginally stronger guy who isn’t sure he wants to be there.”

“Good point,” with a shy smirk, Barry shut off his laptop. “Guess that settles it.”

“What?” Luca was genuinely flustered by how easy that had been. “No speech about how that’s not logical or whatever?”

“Your argument just made enough sense. Now let’s enjoy the…”

Before Barry could finish the sentence—as he glanced around the room for the café for the first time—he saw four people three booths away whispering and pointing at him. The people who had their backs to him would briefly peek over their shoulders, before proceeding with the hush-hush. Barry sighed, raising a hand to touch the portions of his face still bruised from his skirmish with Charles two weeks prior.

Luca realized the gesture and peeked over his own shoulder to see the same group staring at Barry.

“Don’t pay them any mind, dude,” Luca said.

Barry chewed on his lips and stared down into his coffee, his black bruised reflection staring back.

“Come on,” Luca made motion to stand up. “Let’s go back…”

“No!” Barry jumped to his feet.

Before Luca could ask him what was going on, Barry had marched to the strangers’ booth, a killer look in his eyes, then slammed his palms onto their table. The four people, three men and a woman, looked up startled.

“Can I help you?” Barry asked in his usual flat tone, but with an edge of unprecedented assertiveness.

The strangers exchanged concerned looks and unintelligible whispers, the girl blushing while the guys nudged at each other. At last, one of them looked up with a smile.

“Sorry, but are you Barry Watson?”

“Yes…” Barry squinted, confused. “Yes, that’s me.”

The response provoked another wave of excitement and shock over the group, that culminated in the girl speaking up.

“I’m sorry, we just had no idea Kramen Blacksky went to the same school as us!” she said. “We saw your interview the other day, and that’s like… everything we always thought about the League! Big sponsor have way too much influence over the game!”

“They have tainted the competition!” a skinny man in glasses spoke next. “It’s good to see someone standing up to them. Specially someone like you. You have our vote for Wildcard, for sure!”

“I don’t care about the companies,” a small man across the table shrugged. “But I did watch your old games and you kick way more ass than the loser Spawn-Masters nowadays. I can’t wait to see you teach them all a lesson! Especially the Star Ranger!”

“Oh, he’ll try,” a familiar rusty, nonchalant female voice spoke from behind Barry.

He did not need to turn around to smile at the new arrival. He would recognize Dana’s voice and perfume anywhere.

“He’ll do more than try!” a thinner voice retorted as Gummybear pushed past Barry and offered a handshake to each of the four strangers. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Gurmonya Bearius, official healer of the Infinity Riders!”

With the fans distracted by the new arrival, Barry turned to Dana, who was standing behind him with a s**t-eating grin and folded arms.

“What’re you doing here,” Barry’s voice shook in a mix of concern and excitement.

“Gummy missed you guys,” Dana replied. “And I kinda wanted to talk to you.”

“Hey, Dana,” Luca greeted coming from their table, eating the rest of Barry’s bagel.

“Blondy,” Dana nodded. It was almost as if they weren’t surprised to see each other. Almost as if they had planned that encounter. Explained why Luca was so persistent in dragging Barry out of the dorm.

“Hey, Gummybear,” Luca called the kid. “Wanna go get a milkshake?”

“Sure!” she smiled from ear to ear. “Can my new friends-s***h-fans come along?”

“Holy crap, it’s Takol!” one of the fans recognized Luca from the interview.

In a second, Luca, Gummybear and the four strangers were out of the dinner in hunt for ice cream. Without wasting another second, Dana dove into the now free both, kicking her feet up the café table.

“I’ll kill Luca,” Barry muttered as he sat across from his old friend.

“Why?” Dana corked an eyebrow. “Didn’t wanna see me?”

“What?! No! No, that’s not it! I just… I didn’t want you to see me… like this,” he gestured at the bruises on his face.

“Like what? Like a badass?”

“A badass?”

“f**k yeah!” Dana fist-bumped a confused Barry. “No idea how you got that, but I bet there’s a badass story to it, and you’ll be proud of it someday. Trust me. Been there, done that.”

“I did spit on someone’s face…” Barry allowed himself a proud grin.

“Ha! That’s golden!” Dana threw her head back in laughter. “How’d that happen?”

“He was being a possessive jerk about a girl…”

“Huh… Should’ve pegged you for the knight in shining armor type. So, this girl… are you… you know?”

“Oh! Oh no! No way, nuh-uh!” Barry shook his head.

“You going shy at me now, kid?” Dana wiggled her eyebrows while relishing on Barry’s discomfort.

“It’s not… no! She’s… She’s a friend,” Barry stuttered.

“Aren’t they all?” Dana winked at Barry, then, as he rolled his eyes, she waved for a barista behind the counter. “Oi! Get me a large coffee, will you, pretty boy? Black.”

“That’s not how it works,” Barry said.

“How what works?” Dana asked innocently.

“The coffee!” Barry threw his hands up. “You have to get in line and get it yourself at the counter.”

Just as Barry said that, the pubescent barista approached with a large cup of coffee. Barry gawked as the boy delivered Dana’s order right in front of her. She did not even thank the poor man, only took a long sip as if her lips were immune to the smoking hot beverage.

“How?” was all Barry could muster.

“Kid, there are two kind of people who can get whatever they want,” Dana raised two fingers. “Hot people, and scary people. I’m lucky enough to be both.”

“Funny…” Barry smirked, giving the moment a second to brew. “I never thought you were scary.”

Dana grinned at first, but as the subliminal implications of Barry’s retort sunk in, she choked on her drink, coughing and pounding her chest to force the coffee down the right path. Once she recovered, she stared deadpan into Barry’s eyes.

“What’d you just f*****g say?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Barry innocently shook his head. It had been said, and while it could not be unsaid, there was no need to say it again. In fact, it was time to strategically change subjects. “You said you wanted to talk to me?”

“I said I kinda wanted to talk to you,” Dana kicked her feet off the table and sat upright, holding her coffee between her hands. “I saw your interview.”

“I figured you’d appreciate it.”

“Appreciate it? I f*****g loved it! About time someone called out the companies on their bullshit. Not to mention how you shat on that asshole Laserburn’s head! But seriously, I was concerned at how pissed off you were.”

“Luca was concerned too.”

“I know, he mentioned when we were planning this little ambush. But unlike him I think you have all the right to be pissed. I think you should be f*****g pissed! I always am and that’s how I kick the most ass in and out of the game.”

“So, what’s the problem?” Barry asked.

“I want to know if you’re pissed at me too,” Dana bit her lower lip as she asked. “I’d honestly get it if you were.”

“What? Of course not!” Barry reached over the table and held Dana’s leather sleeves. “Why would I be? You were the only one who supported me when they kicked me out, and I know for a fact that you would have done much more if you weren’t bound by contract.”

“Seriously?” Dana asked, her eyes betraying her uncaring façade for the first time in all the years Barry had known her. “In the interview you made it sound like the whole team turned on you.”

“People don’t need the details. It’s none of their business.”

Dana smirked. “That s**t almost sounded like something I’d say.”

“Minus the swearing.”

Dana laughed. “You get me.”

The pair of old friends smiled at each other, exchanging long seconds of knowing glances. Once the silence started feeling remotely uncomfortable, Dana ran a hand through her short hair and sighed.

“Last time we talked…” she recalled their videocall from weeks before. “You had something to tell me. It sounded important, but Luca barged in and we lost connection. What was it?”

“Oh, that?” Barry scratched the back of his neck and chuckled. He remembered that moment, when he had almost told Dana how he actually felt about her. He had hoped to take advantage from the safety of the internet to open himself, but now she was right in front of him. Still, that was the opportunity. Who knew when there would be another? Even if Barry still felt insecure, even if he still felt like nothing more than a kid in her eyes, he had to seize that opportunity.

“Sis!” Gummybear squealed as she jumped into the booth, a gigantic cup of milkshake in her hands. “You gotta try this! It’s delicious!”

Barry sighed in a mixture of relief and annoyance. Luca came right after the girl and joined Barry on his side of the table.

“You guys had fun?” Dana asked, ruffling Gummybear’s hair.

“Yes!” Gummybear replied. “And our new friends, our fans, told us about something very nice happening in the game today!”

“Oh?” Dana raised her eyebrows and looked at Barry and Luca with interest.

“There’s a western dueling tournament going on,” Luca said. “The perfect occasion to find a gunslinger.”

“Good,” Barry nodded and stoop up. “No time to waste. I’ll call Serry.”

“Can I come along?” Dana asked while downing the remainder of her coffee.

Barry smiled at her request. “I’d be offended if you didn’t.”