After leaving Emily's 'Home', I soared to the sky and eventually floated on top of Gavin's shop. I opened the door, seeing him drop a magazine on the counter and was ready to put on his customer service, which he quickly dropped once he saw me.
"Ben? I thought you wanted to take a break today?"
I swallowed. Is this really the right answer? No, I can't hesitate; if I wanted a happy ending for the Shinichi family, I can't afford to be a coward.
"I know...the identity of Kinetic."
Gavin's face turned serious. Wordlessly, he gets up and gestures to me to follow him. We went down to his mancave, and he sat in his office chair, waiting for me to explain. I took a deep breath before revealing everything to him: Emily's true nature and my friendship with her, something which made Gavin wince.
I even explained her motivations for the robbery. Gavin sat listening intently. I finished my story, and I saw him with no expression on his face, it was like for what felt like a long time. He leaned to his chair, staring at me.
"So, what now?"
"What?"
"You obviously have a plan in mind, so let's hear it."
He saw right through it. As expected of someone who used to be in the military.
"I'm going to fight her, there is no other way..."
There truly is no other option. My first impression of Emily of someone who is always in control over her emotions, but that wasn't the case. No doubt that she was itching to throw down with Red Justice.
"But, I'm not just going to fight her and take her to prison, I want to save her..."
Gavin quirked a brow.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'm going to stop her from going the path she's on. I'm going to convince her to return the money she stole. And I will try to help her financial situation."
"How?"
"I'll figure it out."
Gavin stared at me with my brown eyes before rubbing his face. Letting out a tired sigh while doing so.
"And I'm assuming you're not taking her to prison?" He asked.
"That's right."
Gavin stops rubbing his face and looks at me directly in the eye.
"You're being a hypocrite," Gavin said.
"If it were any other person, you would have fought and taken them to jail, but because you know Kinetic or Emily, you're being biased towards her."
I swallowed. "I'm aware of what I'm doing right now, but Emily isn't a bad person-"
"News flash, Ben, a good chunk of criminals didn't choose to rob banks either!" I winced as Gavin raised his voice.
"Look, I'm sorry for shouting, but it's true. There are a lot of people in Emily's situation; heck, I knew a lot of others who were victims of circumstances. I feel bad for them, I do, but they did what they did; they have to be put on trial."
I didn't say anything, I bit my lip. "No."
"What?"
"No, I'm not going to drag her to jail. I know I'm being a hypocrite, and as a superhero, that's unbecoming of me."
I look down at the floor, clenching my fist.
"I know legally, you're right, and a good chunk of people in the world would agree with you. But I can't accept this. This is too unfair." I say, before my eyes look at Gavin, summoning every determination I have with my look and words.
"Perhaps this is morally questionable, but in my heart, it's the right call. I refuse to abandon her."
"Why?" Gavin asked, and I took a deep breath.
"Because how can I save others, when I can't even save a friend...?"
We stared into each other's eyes. His tense gaze faltered, but I remained steady. I've got to show him how serious I am about this. Neither of us is backing down. Eventually, though, Gavin's eyes softened. He looks at the ceiling before clasping his hands together and shaking them.
"Dear Christ All Mighty Father, please grant me the strength to deal with this child."
"What?"
Gavin unclasped his hands before shaking his head and sighing.
"I don't agree with it, but I know I can't stop you. You're the superhero after all."
"You mean..." My eyes brightened.
"Yeah, I'll help-"
I interrupted Gavin by hugging him. Repeating thank you's while squeezing him tight.
"G-get off me, you gorilla boy! You're going to break my ribs!"
I removed myself and offered a sheepish smile as an apology, which made Gavin roll his eyes at the gesture.
"Alright, we'll plan, but first things first, upgrades."
This made my eyes widen. "Upgrades?"
"Well, it's not a complete overhaul, but I did get some stuff that would help you." He says, grabbing my SEE goggle and tossing it to me.
I put it on before looking at anything different, but there wasn't. At least not that I could see. I was about to ask before I spotted something on the top corner of my vision.
[CE : 87%]
"What's CE?"
"That's short for Cosmic Energy."
"Okay, cool...what's Cosmic Energy?"
Gavin points at me. "It's the energy flowing in your body right now. I told you before, my scanners detected an energy inside you, one that has never been seen before. And I told my theory of that being the source of your power."
My gaze shifted to my hand, red electricity appeared between my fingertips tips a little before vanishing.
"Cosmic Energy, huh? Why Cosmic, though?"
Gavin shrugged. "It came from a different dimension that looked like you were in space, so Cosmic. It's better than any name you would have made for it."
He's got me there at least.
"Remember, your weakness is that you have to continuously eat food to maintain your power, or else you start to get weaker. But we can't tell aside from your physical performance, and so I made it easier by putting software in the SEE goggles to detect the amount of CE you have before needing to eat."
I nod, yeah, I guess that's pretty useful, especially against a tough opponent like Emily.
"That also leads me to another addition..."
Gavin opened a drawer in his desk to retrieve something before showing it to me. It was a black utility belt, and it had two big pouches on each side.
"Utility belt to store some snacks and other food."
"No gadgets?" I asked, making him scoff.
"You don't need gadgets. Why do you think Superman needed a grappling hook?"
I shut my mouth.
"That's what I thought. These are the tools you can use to aid you."
I nodded. "Thank you, Gavin, for everything."
He sighed. "I hope the Red Justice merch sales are worth it. Okay, enough about that. Let's make a plan to save you're friend."
RED
The Next Day...Emily's House
JUSTICE
Emily opened her room, tired after another argument with her parents about the money. Speaking of, she could see the golden bars and the duffel bag filled with loads of cash in the corner of her room. The sight of it made her angry, hating the fact that she had to rob a place and nearly hurt other people just so they could live a normal life. Truly, this world was beyond disgusting. A world where the rich can do anything while people like them suffer without any say.
It's filled with fake people just selling you stuff. She cannot trust anyone outside her family, with the only exception being Ben. An awkward boy younger than her, but he was a good person, someone that Emily does not deserve. Emily walks towards her dirty bed, but stops. There was a paper in the middle.
She felt a small pressure in her head as she willed the letter to fly up and to her face. It was a letter from HIM...
'I know who you are. Please meet me in the sky on top of Happy Valley Forest.'
-Red Justice
Emily grits her teeth and crumbles the paper with her telekinesis. How did he know!? That egoist should not have known about her, the true her! This must be a trap, but she knows she has no choice but to go along. He knows where he lives and presumably her parents.
Emily can't let them be involved; she will just deal with this punk herself!