Super Reporter System, Daddy's Home

Chapter Type: Character Development

The blue van (because black vans draw suspicion) pulls into Huntsville, careful to obey all the traffic laws. Inside are four men, all with beards, most with scars. All, if one were to check their backgrounds, were marines assigned to the Puget Sound naval base in Seattle.

All are survivors of the Angelfire incident, and have been officially released from duty due to survivor's trauma. Each joined an organization called Humans for Humanity, although they haven't officially been members for several months, now.

It has been a long ride from El Paso, where the body of Senor de la Mente, a meta-human assisting people in crossing the border from Juarez, has yet to be discovered. The van pulls in at the house they have rented for two weeks through AirBnB, although none of them expect to be in Huntsville that long.

As part of their unpacking, they unload a classroom whiteboard. It is set up with four pictures.

One of them is James Baker, on the cover of Bespoke magazine. <1>

There are two women, one a redhead with a bad sunburn, the other a blonde of age eight in pigtails.

The last picture is of Brian Matthews.

#

Having been released from the Hospital, Brian Matthews arrives home with a family size order of boneless wings from Zaxby's Chicken and a quart container of strawberry ice cream.

He hasn't considered any of the business cards now in his wallet; he just wants to spend the rest of his day at home with his wife and girls, bungling his way through a session of Minecraft, or possibly being victimized repeatedly in Among Us.

He knows that this phase cannot last forever; Nancy is already at the age where she does more things with her friends than with her family, and she is already inseparable from her cell phone.

He knows that the day is quickly coming when they will be distant, insisting on becoming adults even though they aren't remotely ready.

'I'm probably not setting the best example, letting them eat fast food two days in a row.'

[Possible, but unlikely. Due to a combination of their metabolisms and activity level, your wife and daughters are less likely to gain weight than you are.]

'Thank you, System.'

[Not a problem, Brian. System is here to provide support.]

"Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" Casey screams, as she starts a charge from the living room.

"Whoa, not so fast." Brian says. "Ice cream hazard."

"Okay!" she says, barely slowing her approach.

Brian puts his butt up against the door, a trick he has learned for keeping his balance. She skids the last three feet on her socks across the wood flooring, something her mother has told her not to do. But it slows her enough that Brian isn't hurt as she clasps both his legs just above the kneecaps.

"Hey, Casey. Slow. Slow. Daddy's home for the day, and not going anywhere."

"I love you, daddy."

"I love you, too, munchkin."

Samantha is at the hallway to the living room. "You'd better have some love left for me."

"Always." He said, falling into the pattern they share. With shuffling steps, careful not to dislodge his daughter, he moves close enough to set the bags on an end table to the left of the door. "And I come bearing gifts."

"Ooh, boneless wings."

Casey laughs. "Mom, those aren't wings, they're chicken nuggets."

"Hrm… I don't know. I guess we'll have to EAT THEM."

"As if food would make us forget." Nancy says from the kitchen. "You owe us, dad."

"I brought ice cream. It's strawberry."

"You've raised your daughters to be merciless." His wife tells him.

"Oh, surely not that merciless."

Nancy sweeps in and picks up the plastic bags. "Nope, you owe more than food."

"Croods was such a good movie, daddy. You should have seen it with us."

"I should have, sweetie. I'm so sorry to have missed that. But we can watch it again, tonight."

"Nope. Descendants." Casey says, displaying her toothiest smile. <2>

"Oh, is that the one with the children of the villains?"

"Yes, it is. It looks like fun…"

"Did you get Casey's hot sauce?" Samantha asked.

"What? No. I didn't get a text about that."

Samantha looks down briefly. "I sent an email."

[Confirmed, the email is in your inbox. Shall I read it to you?]

'Maybe later.' Brian thinks.

"I'm sorry, I didn't check. Ten minutes there, ten minutes back."

"Nope." Casey says from down between his knees. "You're back home. You said so."

"I guess I did." Brian admits.

"Food's out, guys…" Nancy calls from the small dining table off the kitchen and adjacent to the living room."

"Chicken nuggets and movies! Nancy, get the popcorn buttered, please and thank you." Off again at a run, Casey passes her mother like a blur.

"Hey," she says, as Brian comes to her, "Come watch a chick flick with me."

He takes her outstretched hand. "Every spare moment that work doesn't take. I'm spending those moments with you and the girls."

"Don't think you're off the hook for yesterday. The jury can only be distracted by the digital circus for so long."

"Given how many families have the exact opposite problem? I'll just have to be myself, and take my chances."

# 5: 16 PM

James Baker, who thinks of himself as Muscleborn, is picking up his new phones at the store. He doesn't have insurance; even if he breaks a phone every day, he can afford it.

What he has to take care of, what everyone who has a phone knows, is that all his data is on his SIMM chip, a memory module inside the phone. So, today he is buying three phones, with protective casings, and is learning how to back up his SIMM chip.

Or rather, he was supposed to be learning that. The fool they have selling things in the store tells him that's just not how SIMM chips work, that it isn't that simple. That it involves special hardware and software.

Ah, now we're getting somewhere, he thinks. He listens carefully to what the fool knows. He isn't a technical person, a details person, and he knows it. The fool is even less so. But that's okay, because James knows people, people who do have those skills.

But he doesn't need those skills tonight. Oh, no. Tonight, he has a clean bill of health. He knows things, things most people don't know. Like how there just aren't enough people in Huntsville or even in neighboring Madison to hold an underground fighting ring.

But, just two hours' drive away, south in Birmingham…

There is an underground fighting ring there. <3>

And it is time for him to flex his muscles.

# 5:45 PM

Claire White arrives home. She used to have a husband, but he couldn't deal with her keeping her job after he lost his. And she tried to hold on, she really did, because that was what you did with the people you love. For richer, or for poorer.

But there was nothing that could move Tyrone when he didn't want to move, and nothing that could stop him when he did. But … when he'd wanted to go, she'd tried. She'd thrown away dignity, and told him how she had needed him, begged him not to go.

And his words… Jesus in heaven, who knew that just words could hurt so much?

In spite of what he'd said that night, she thought he might have come back. If he'd lived; if the truck driver hadn't been drunk, if Tyrone had been paying attention, if if if…

She could play THAT record all night long, if she weren't tired of hearing it.

Her mother had come, of course, and helped her through the first months. And ninety-one days after the accident, she'd called Luther Stern, and told him that she would be late, but she would be in. And, like a professional, like a champion, she hadn't been late a single day since then.

There were no children, and at her age, she knew there wouldn't be any children with anyone else. (Unless she met a wonderful man and they decided to adopt.)

So, she came home, normally like clockwork, but some nights… Some nights the story had her, typing away late at the office.

And some times, like with these murdered people, she just couldn't leave well enough alone.

She sighed, an took her dinner out of the crockpot. Maybe some day her job would kill her, but it hadn't been today. Today, she had lived through another day. One day at a time, after all.

# 9:44 PM

The hunt has been fruitful; another of the large, helpless ones. Again, its belly is too small to hold the whole kill. Again, it takes note of where it leaves the remainder.

It will return again, as it always does. As always, scavengers will have removed all trace of the kill.

A new hunt will begin.

<1> Author's disclaimer: Not affiliated with the real world Bespoke Concierge Magazine. As always, any similarities are purely coincidental.

<2> Croods is copyright by by Dreamworks/Universal. Descendants is copyright by Disney. Please go through legal channels if you or your children have any desire to watch these movies.

<3> Purely fictional, so far as I know. Similarities, see above.