The Protagonist System

223 New Wave Interlude

Sarah Pelham, cape name Lady Photon, called another family meeting and held it in her living room this time. Crystal was in college, so was on the phone and listening in. She would have flown over if she didn't have a test in the morning.

“I apologize for the short notice to call this meeting.” Sarah said and everyone muttered acceptance. “However, it only just came to my attention that a certain someone completely rebuffed Atlas while in his civilian identity this morning.”

Amy blushed and ducked her head.

“Even with the plan going well to play things off as your usual behavior, stopping Atlas from touching you like that, really sends a strong message.” Sarah explained. “Since it's a message we do not want out there, can you explain to us why you're so repulsed by him now?”

“I'm not repulsed!” Amy exclaimed and felt embarrassed by her outburst. “I just... I don't want to risk touching him and... and losing what I felt before.”

Vicky put an arm over her shoulders and hugged her. “It her power. She almost wallowed in how good it felt to touch Atlas. Now that he can heal as well, Amy's afraid her power isn't going to react well to the changes he must have gone through.”

Sarah sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Can you wear rubber gloves or something?”

“No, they make no difference.” Amy answered.

“I suppose that also explains why Nostrum is so affectionate towards Atlas.” Carol said.

“Wh-what?” Amy, Vicky, and Eric asked, stunned.

“You didn't realize that?” Carol asked and they shook their heads. “Diane kisses him full on the lips without worry, hangs over him when she hugs him, and almost always has a hand or fingertips somewhere on him, mostly on his neck or his lower arm.”

The adults all nodded while the teenagers looked surprised.

“The pictures of them walking hand-in-hand on the boardwalk while shopping and down on the closed beach, clearly showed a lot more personal attention than a mother should have for her son... unless he's a momma's boy.” Manpower, Sarah's husband said as he looked right at his son Eric, whose face went red and he didn't deny it.

That was also why Eric died his hair blue, because it gave him even more of her attention. He wasn't old enough to realize that negative attention does not count as affection.

“That's going a bit off track to what this meeting is about.” Sarah said gained everyone's attention again. “Atlas was doing his best to play along and he can't do that effectively if Panacea doesn't even let him hug her.”

“He always goes in for a kiss afterwards.” Vicky said.

“Then you tell him not to when he hugs you, dammit!” Carol said, unable to keep her anger at their stupidity under control. “How can you be so ignorant that...”

“Carol.” Sarah interrupted her and Carol closed her mouth.

“I reserve the right to yell at them for accepting his t-shirts and not telling me they were his.” Carol said as she crossed her arms.

She had taken Vicky's and then found out Amy had one as well when Atlas had called. She told the girls she had thrown them out, except both t-shirts were excessively and almost sinfully comfortable and had kept them for herself. After washing them, of course. She also secretly loved the ruffled bird one that said inner peace started at people flocking off, because it was her personal philosophy.

“On your own time is fine.” Sarah agreed and Carol nodded as both girls sighed. “As for how Panacea acts...” She turned to look at Amy. “...you're not even going to let him hug you, are you?”

Amy wanted to say she would, and she couldn't. She never wanted to lose the feeling of touching a perfect body and she was too scared to attempt it. Instead of saying anything, all she did was shake her head no.

Sarah sighed. “Crystal, go ahead and release the rumors that Panacea is having a power reaction to Atlas, since that's the simplest explanation.”

“It's also the truth.” Vicky said and hugged her sister.

“I'm on it.” Crystal said. “Okay, it's added to the massive thread about the new healer in New Wave.”

Carol smiled widely at that. “What's the page count up to?”

“It's almost at the count limit and they'll have to start another thread, just like they did under the Cape Life category.” Crystal said. “They've tried to ban topless pics of him and all they're doing in making their site traffic go crazy as more people post different pics.”

“He did take off his t-shirt a couple times at school.” Eric added. “I didn't think anyone took cell phone pictures, though.”

“I think they wanted to keep them for themselves, then realized they could fan the flames online and bingo bango, more popularity for them and for Altas.” Crystal said with a soft laugh. “Bad Canary is really good at doing that, actually.”

“She does have more direct access than anyone else right now.” Sarah said.

“That's because I couldn't figure out a good way to have him visit when I was there on the weekend.” Crystal said and both Vicky and Amy frowned. “I can hear the silence, so I'll clarify that I wouldn't have taken any pictures without his permission. I'm trying to help his online persona, not abuse his trust.”

Vicky felt like she was slapped in the face by that comment.

“Oh! Bad Canary just posted a mostly nude pic of him in the shower. Damn, the steam's covering... and PHO just crashed.” Crystal said and laughed. “Solid props to her. That was a great way to close out the message thread.”

“Speaking of online postings, another video of a silent meal between Glory Girl and Atlas was shared online.” Sarah said and Vicky sighed. “If you can't even talk to him when working, then I'm officially changing the patrol schedule.”

“That's not fair! I like having someone at my back.” Vicky complained.

“Someone that you treat like trash and ignore until they're needed?” Sarah asked and Vicky looked embarrassed. “I'm not assigning him to Amy's patrol at the hospital, either.”

Amy sighed with relief. She was having a difficult enough time already with Greg at school and she didn't need that added stress at work, too.

“They have enough healing available with Nostrum being on call whenever she's needed for emergency cases.” Sarah said and Amy's relief disappeared as she was reminded about how much she resented that her only real value to the team was slowly being taken over by an older woman that was shorter than her.

“What are we going to do with a third healer?” Carol asked. “You better not suggest we open a free healing stall that's against the Health Code and highly illegal. Trust me, we do not want to get on the wrong side of the NEPA5 laws.”

Sarah chuckled and patted her sister's arm. “I was thinking we can extend an olive branch to our neighbouring city of Boston or perhaps go full out and offer to send him to New York for his work placement twice a week.”

“You're sending him to New York and not me?” Amy asked, feeling outraged.

“Can you teleport yourself there and back?” Sarah asked and nodded at Carol, whom took out several copies of the new assessment that Atlas had gone through at the PRT when he went in for his healing certification.

The whole family was engrossed as they read over everything Atlas could do and only Eric was surprised at the 10+ marks across the board.

“Is this guy for real?” Eric asked and waved the paper. “These numbers are ridiculous.”

“Armsmaster was quite correct in saying Atlas is a cross between Alexandra and Legend. With both mover and blaster powers, he's pretty much the strongest cape in the world.” Sarah said, smugly. “He's also a member of New Wave and everyone is talking about him.”

Carol caught on right away. “That's how we can get away with sending him to another city to work! They'll easily welcome him with open arms and won't make a fuss about him stepping into other cape territories, because he's there to offer healing.”

“You got it.” Sarah said. “It'll spread our message and also won't piss anyone off. Everyone loves having access to a healer.”

“I'll start sending out feelers to the capes in New York.” Crystal said over the phone. “They have a lot of official and unofficial accounts on PHO.”

“I thought it was down?” Vicky asked.

“It was. It's running on a backup server right now and it's rolled back in time a week.” Crystal answered. “All the threads are locked and only new ones are being responded to.”

“Then how are you going to start contacting people?” Sarah asked.

“Private messages are still going through.” Crystal said. “I assume the databases will be synced up in a few hours and might wipe out anything new if they switch the servers back.”

“Which might cover your tracks.” Sarah said with a nod. “Go ahead and see if anyone over there would mind a visit from Atlas.”

“On it.” Crystal said and they could hear some typing.

“Why only New York? I thought you said Boston, too.” Vicky said.

“Bigger fish in a bigger pond.” Carol responded. “A healer would be in much more demand at one of their major hospitals on a rotating basis.”

“We'll still make an offer to Boston after we talk to Atlas about it. We don't want to annoy him or do anything besides testing the waters for the offer before actually making it. If Atlas isn't on board, then there's no harm and no foul.” Sarah explained.

“Flechette says she can't wait to run the idea by her boss.” Crystal said. “Apparently, his new assessment has been making the rounds across all of the PRT branches and they had a briefing about it already.”

Sarah smiled. “That's going to save us a lot of groundwork. We need to talk to Atlas as soon as possible and see if he's up for a bit of travelling.”

“That... might be... a problem.” Crystal hesitatingly said.

“Why?” Sarah asked.

“Because.” Crystal said and didn't say anything else.

Sarah sighed. “If it's bad news, you better tell us about it.”

“I've been watching a few things and have a few notifications registered at different sites, in case there was any news concerning Atlas... and... well...”

“Just spit it out!” Carol almost shouted.

“Bad Canary Productions just released a virgin recording of a new song.” Crystal said.

“You can get virgins of that?” Eric asked, surprised.

“Virgin means it was the very first one ever made and no one else has heard it.” Vicky said and the rest of her family gave her surprised looks. “What? I like my music.”

“Can you play it for us?” Sarah asked.

“It'll sound like crap over the laptop and then over the phone.” Crystal informed them. “Hold on, I'll send Vicky the link to her cell. Hers should relay the quality much better.”

Vicky's cell phone beeped at her and she checked it and clicked the link. “I need to turn it up and put it on speaker.”

“This is the debut single called 'I'll Do Anything For Love' and has not been enhanced, altered, or changed.” Paige Macabee's voice said. “It's by the newest contracted performer for Bad Canary Productions, Atlas.”

Nearly everyone gasped except Crystal, since she already knew. An acoustic guitar started strumming and then Atlas started singing. “Some days, it don't come easy...”

The members of New Wave listened with rapt attention as the young man's voice held them in thrall. The men didn't feel much, since they weren't really interested in the lyrics. The women however, they all started blushing as they felt like Atlas was singing directly to them and he was telling them how much he loved them and how much he treasured them. By the time the song ended, Amy and Vicky were in tears.

“Sarah, text Atlas right away and ask for a meeting for tomorrow after school. I'll get the paperwork started for cooperating with a PRT liaison in another city.” Carol said and Sarah nodded. She turned to look at her daughters and pointed at them. “Don't.” She scolded them. “Whatever you were thinking... just don't.”

Both girls nodded and wiped at their eyes.

“This meeting is adjourned.” Sarah said and Carol left the house with a swift stride. Amy and Vicky stood, a little shaky, and left at a more sedate pace. Carol's husband Mark shrugged and followed them without a word.

Eric was a teenage male, so he didn't grasp the full meaning of what just happened and went upstairs to his room. He had the urge to listen to more music and would for the next few hours until he fell asleep. Manpower stood up and smiled at his wife, then went upstairs to change and go to bed.

Sarah sat in her living room, all alone, and lamented that her husband hadn't taken a clue from the song they just heard. Why couldn't he devote himself like that to her? Why hasn't he declared that he would do anything for her love? Why did she feel disappointed that her own husband didn't love her enough to kiss her goodnight anymore?

She had never given it a second thought before and now she started wondering. Why did he stop showing her as much affection as he used to? Was something going on?

With a new drive to figure that out, Sarah started digging. His cell phone, his credit card receipts, and his dirty casual clothes. As she searched, she couldn't help see all the little signs her own love for him had hidden from her eyes. When she was done searching and found a box of condoms in the dashboard's glove compartment of his truck, she knew the truth.

Manpower was a cheating bastard and she had been too blind to see it.

Sarah knew exactly what she wanted to do to get her revenge on him and to make him pay. She couldn't divorce him, not with how they were in the public eye like they were; but, she wasn't going to take his blatant cheating without making it clear to him who wore the pants in the family.