“Now arriving at: The Grand Canyon.” The stewardess’ annoyed voice broke through the silence inside the cabin. After Rob had returned from the restroom, the flight had lasted another half an hour or so.

I gently stirred Angelina from her slumber by stroking her cheek, and gave Dantae a good morning kiss to wake her as well. While Angelina lazily rolled off of me and stretched, Dantae looked me in the eyes, her deep blue gaze reflecting my own, and kissed my cheek before leaning farther into my shoulder.

“Ugh. If you two would like to hurry it up, we have a supernatural being to slay.” Alison gave us a disapproving look and pointed out the window to a mass of black fog that hung over the valley.

I got up and started to walk down the plane aisle, but was interrupted with the sight of Rob blocking the exit and chatting frantically with the flight attendant.

Seeing his figure caused all the negative emotions from the flight to come rushing back, and it took all I had not to beat him down on the spot.

Instead, I settled for a compromise and walked up behind him before kicking him in the ass and sending him tumbling violently down the stairs from the plane to the outside.

I followed him, and after setting foot on the ground I found out we were precariously parked on top of a rock outcropping that overlooked the large canyon below, which had become dense with dimensional fog.

The black mist was static, and unaffected by the sharp winds that chilled my skin. After I reached the ground, Rob came up to me and tried to punch me, but I sidestepped and he fell forward onto the rough stone floor.

Immediately after this outburst, Angelina came up and grabbed Rob by his collar. “What do you think you’re doing, partner?”

Rob had a look of hatred in his eyes but subdued it quite well, answering Angelina calmly, “Didn’t you see him literally kick me off the plane? I think I deserve a little payback.”

Rob pointed to his arms, or more specifically the scrapes and cuts he had received from the fall. Angelina sighed, let go of Rob and turned to me.

“Whatever happened, I’m sure it was his fault. Please forgive him!” She bowed deeply as she spoke, causing Rob to interject.

“Don’t bow your head to this freak! He’s a monster, Angie! You don’t have to apologize for anything.” I watched Angelina tremble as he spoke, and when he had finished she stopped her bow and turned to look at Rob.

“If he’s a monster, then what am I!? At least he’s lived a little since his project ended! Meanwhile I’m still stuck in-“ she stared at Rob and covered her mouth to stop herself, tears forming in her eyes as she turned and ran back into the plane.

She roughly pushed herself past Dantae, Maria and Alison on her way back. Dantae and I exchanged a quick look and she went back inside to hopefully comfort Angelina, followed in tow by the other girls.

Meanwhile, Rob looked devastated and only stared at the entrance to the plane, his lips starting to quiver before he regained control and stood up slowly.

He looked down and brushed passed me, trying to get back into the plane. However-

“Where do you think you’re going?” I put my hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

He tried to shrug me off, but I held on firmly. “Listen. I know we haven’t gotten off on the best foot,” he gave me a dirty look, “ok, we got off on the worst foot, but right now I just want to help you so we can get this mission over with.”

Rob gave me a skeptical look before sitting down on the stairs to the plane. I remained standing, and just watched over him until he was ready to speak.

After a few minutes, he looked up with tears in his eyes, “I can’t stand people like you. You want hide your powers and pretend to be normal, but why?”

He shook his head and continued, “If people like you didn’t hide who they truly were, then maybe I wouldn’t have as many regrets as I do.”

He looked to the sky, “Maybe my sister would still be living normally.”

——

“Katherine, come out! I can only look for you for so long before it’s dinner time!” Rob scoured the park, finally spotting a pink bow in some bushes next to a green bench.

“Okay! That’s it, I’m leaving!” Rob shouted then hid inside a bush of his own. He watched in amusement as his little sister, a skinny thing with bright blonde hair tied up in a ponytail with a bow to hold it came out of the bushes with tears in her eyes.

“Robby!? Robby don’t leave me!” Her voice squeaked as she began to cry, and Rob cursed himself. It really was getting late, and his sister was afraid of the dark, making her a lot more cowardly at night.

Feeling like scum after seeing his sister in tears, Rob got out of the bushes just in time to see Katherine being approached by two gang members.

“Shit!” Rob muttered, knowing what kind of place the park becomes after dark. One of the men walked up to her and lifted her by the arm like a toy.

“This is a noisy one, I want to kill her, I think?” He took out a pistol and pointed it at Katherine, who just started screaming even more.

The other man grabbed the shoulder of the first. “Don’t do it Jack. Do you know what’ll happen if you kill a kid in the middle of a park like this!? Investigations, Jack. They’ll do a sweep of the park, and what’ll they find? Us, Jack. Us.”

Jack, clearly the dumber of the two, shook his head at the other man. “But Todd, she’s so noisy it hurts.” He waves the pistol in the air like a flag, the embodiment of all his pride.

Scared out of his wits, Rob finally couldn’t take it anymore and darted out from his cover into the two gangsters.

“P-please let my sister go!” Rob tugged on Todd’s shirt, as he seemed the more sensible one, and tried his best to muster up any courage left in his teenage body.

When Todd turned, a look of concern was plastered on his face, but Jack only grinned at his new target. “Ooh, another one. Can I kill him then, Todd?” Katherine screamed louder, her face now a wet mess.

Seeing the look in Jack’s eyes and the nasty grin on his face, Rob’s body couldn’t take the pressure anymore and his legs gave way, before being followed by his bowels.

“Eugh, that’s disgusting. The kid pissed himself Todd. That’s it,” he turned his back on Rob and turned to Katherine, who had raised her head, only to be met with the sight of a muzzle in her face.

Rob screamed and he heard two gunshots before the world went black.

Waking up in a hospital bed, Rob scanned the room carefully, and saw his parents. He was overjoyed for a moment, but his heart sank when he saw Todd staring back at him from the room’s doorway.

“Listen kid-“ Todd was interrupted by a harsh scream from the kid, whose parents tried their best and barely succeeded in calming him down.

“Ow, I guess I deserved that. My name is Todd Borowski, an undercover agent for the government. I was infiltrating a local mob’s business when... I’m... I’m sorry about your sister.”

Rob almost didn’t register when his parents told him about the affair, how Todd had pulled his gun on Jack and shot him dead just as Jack had taken a shot at Katherine.

After hearing the story, Rob looked crushed, and only uttered one word. “Why.”

Todd scrunched his eyebrows. “What do you mean, why?”

“I mean,” Rob said, his voice increasing in volume due to an oncoming fit of rage, “If you had a gun all along, why didn’t you kill him before he killed Katherine!”

“Kid,” Todd looked confused, “your sister’s not dead.” He pointed behind Rob, who flicked his head as if he were trying to break the sound barrier.

Lying there, in a cot next to his, was Katherine. She was hooked up to all sorts of machines with wires.

“She’s comatose,” Todd explained, “she was grazed with Jacks bullet and fell into a shock-induced coma.”

“What are her chances of recovery?” Rob looked hopeful, but Todd quickly shot that down.

“The docs are saying she has a slim hanger of recovery, which could increase as she gets older. But as for immediate recovery, that’s completely out of the picture.”

Thinking of his last memory his sister had of him, a weak-kneed teenager who pissed himself in the face of danger, Rob cried, as much for himself as for his sister.

——

“At first, I thought it was all my fault.” Rob told me after finishing his story. “In fact, a part of me still does to this day.”

“But that’s when I realized what a piece of garbage Todd was. He had the power to help my sister before she became comatose, but he kept up appearances until the last minute just to maintain the status-quo. It’s bullshit!”

Rob exhaled roughly and stared me in the eyes. “That’s what I hate about you. Think of how much you could benefit others if you just openly flaunted your power! Do you think I wanted to become a soldier? No!” Rob’s fist pounded the step under him.

“Do you know how much it costs to keep someone hospitalized for 8 whole years!? It’s a lot! So,” He started to drum his fingers on the steps, “I made a deal with General Armando. He’d pay out of pocket for my sister’s medical expenses, and I sign on as one of the three current, four at the time, inheritors of the Walker Gene.”

“What about your parents?” It seemed like a dumb question, but I would have loved to know what they thought about Rob’s new profession.

“What about them, they abandoned me, and her.” I must have had a confused look on my face, as Rob continued. “After the first two years, they couldn’t keep up with the bills and sent me to an orphanage. Luckily enough, one of the patrons for the hospital that Katherine was staying in offered to pay for her continued treatment, on the condition that if she ever awoke she would marry someone of his choosing. And how could I refuse? I was just a kid that didn’t have any way of earning money.”

Rob balled his fists,“So think. Think of the soldiers and civilians you could save by going into war zones and slaughtering the enemy. Or, becoming a modern-day superhero in Boston, crime would go down so much and there would be less people like me, who lost everything because of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I looked the boy up and down, and that’s all he appeared to be: a boy. Only someone so young could have such naive thoughts, not even realizing that inflicting violence on your enemies was just continuing the cycle of tragedy.

“Look, Rob. It’s not like you’re fundamentally wrong, and you could save many people that way, but it’s always a choice.” He looked at me quizzically. “What’s that look for?”

He shrugged and sighed, “I never thought I’d be consoled by the man I aggravated an hour ago. But I suppose I should just ask, what do you mean by choices?”

I smiled, even though I knew he was still relatively unstable, his facade of a class clown was coming back. “I mean, do you make the choice to save ten soldiers or make an enemy out of a country? Do you make the choice to capture criminal lords and open a power vacuum, or just let them remain in the shadows? Or,” I kneeled down in front of him, no longer looking down on him but on equal ground, “The choice between ending a criminal syndicate or saving one little girl. Not everything is black and white, in fact, nothing is.”

Rob’s eyes opened wide, and tears began to spill out, and became an uncontrollable flood that dampened his face. “I… I guess I never really thought of it like that. I guess he did sacrifice that operation’s progress to try and save Katherine.”

Finally, for the first time I saw Rob truly smile. “Thanks Leo. I guess I just needed to talk to someone and get a fresh perspective.” His smile disappeared quickly, as he stood up and came down to the ground. “Listen, there’s something I need to tell you about-”

“It can wait Rob. Right now we have to focus on killing… what did HQ code this Dimension Eater as?”

“Rotwing.” Dantae’s voice came from the plane, and I turned my head to see the girls fileing out one by one, with Angelina bringing up the rear.

“Angie, I’m-” Angelina patted him on the shoulder.

“No, I’m sorry Rob. I should have a little more trust in my partner. So,” she flashed a confident grin at Rob, “what do you say? Ready to add an accomplishment to our team’s achievements?”

Rob smiled back, tears filling his eyes once again, “Definitely!”