Trapped in Time

Chapter 9: The Kid

At precisely 8:08 AM, Sportacus awakens. He feels a slight pressure on his chest only to look down and see a peacefully sleeping Robbie. Smiling slightly to himself, he realizes that this isn't the first time that he's woken up like this. His new least favorite part of waking up would be the getting up part. He needs to make breakfast for everyone, and he gently wakes Robbie up. Sportacus is careful to not trigger another flashback. The villain grumbles, "Five more minutes?" and the blue elf chuckles. "I have to get up, I need to make food. Lean on me while I make food or something." Robbie yawns and agrees.

As Sportacus works on making eggs and toast, Robbie is leaning up onto him - he is half asleep. Meanwhile, in the other room, Number 9 wakes up and slips out of bed without waking up Glenn. He walks towards the living room but stops dead in his tracks at the sight of the younger pair. Sportacus is too busy cooking to notice the presence of his mentor, and Robbie is still sleeping. Ipro rushes back to the room sneakily and body slams Glenn, covering the other villains mouth. Glenn's eyes widen abruptly, but Number 9 is quick to speak, "You have to come see this, but be silent. Trust me." Glenn nods, grabbing his compact camera. Number 9 grabs onto Glenn's hand, dragging him out. Once the pair are done with taking photos, they both walk to the counter nonchalantly. "Good morning, Sportacus and Robbie!" Glenn holds back a laugh, "Good morning, little cous! Enjoying your pillow?" he questions with a wink.

Robbie wakes up due to the noise erupting from his cousin's mouth. Glenn smirks, "You're so adorable! I'm glad that you mimic my good looks, though!" The villain looks confused, "What didn't I try to mimic?" Everyone could tell that he was still mostly asleep. Glenn smiles, "Aww! You look up to me that much! Well, I'm glad that you didn't successfully mimic me because you are so much better than I am! Though I hate to say anyone is better than this perfect person," he finishes, gesturing to himself.

The sleeping villain awakens at this comment. "How am I better than you?" Glenn narrows his eyes, "What do you mean?" Robbie begins to explain to his cousin about why he is better. "Well, you're great at most anything you do. You have charisma that can trick an entire city, you get whatever the hell you want when you don't try, and you have the majority of the family proud of you. You're famous."

Glenn doesn't get it. 

"While all of this is... possibly true... you are better than me. I taught you the things I did because I knew that it would help you get legal jobs. You have like, three. But because of my name I will never be able to live a normal life without crime in it. Stealing is a fucking addiction. I would love to give Number 9 the life that he deserves but I can never stop being a criminal. I'm hooked on it, and I cannot just sit still and do nothing. I'm good at a lot because I was raised to only do crime. Those skills are just to make up for things that I cannot do. I wanted you to be better than me, Robbie. You didn't try to harm anyone, or kill anyone in Play town when they were torturing you. You have a heart, and you're not selfish like me. I only value myself and the things that benefit me. The only things that I have ever done without thinking about myself was marrying Ipro... and helping to take care of you."

Robbie's face softens, and he become sad. "I'm sorry," he whimpers, his eyes glazing over. He can't hear anyone anymore. Uh oh... "I'm sorry, it's my fault. I'm nothing more than a liar." He begins sobbing into his hands. 

"You are no better than that worthless cousin of yours. You're just gonna be a criminal like him."

"You are nothing but a liar, and you're probably going to end up like him. Maybe we'll get lucky... and you'll become just another corpse in the street of Mayhem Town. We won't ever have to hear about the rotten things that you'll do."

"We should've just left you on the street. If it wasn't for the fact that we get paid to have you here we would've gotten rid of your worthless ass. Get out of our sight before we have to waste time punishing you, and don't you dare ask about that pathetic cousin of yours."

When Robbie finally comes back to reality, Glenn looked to be on the verge of tears. He was gripping onto his little cousin's arms, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you sad... I'm really sorry. Please forgive me. I didn't mean to!"

The villain rubbed his eyes and pulled away, "It wasn't you in the flash back, Glenn. It was... about mother and father. I don't think I want to call them that. I just remembered that once you left I never talked too good about you. They always said that I would never be anything better than you - the thief, the coward. I'm obviously nothing more than a liar."

Glenn's eyes widen at the realization. "Just wait until I get my hands on th-"

Robbie interrupts, "Don't bother. It's not like they're wrong. I do hide things... and lie a lot." Glenn shakes his head, "Hey, everyone has their secrets..."

"Cous, there's something that I've been hiding from you. It's not a small something either..." 

Glenn doesn't get it, but assures Robbie that things take time." Robbie doesn't like this comment, "It's been a little over fourteen years. I should've told you sooner."

The older cousin gasps, "Fourteen years!? What could you possibly be-"

Robbie interrupts him quickly, "I have a daughter." Glenn shrieks, "What? How?" The villain goes into story time mode once more, "Well when you left me at a bar I got... really drunk. I had to make the intrusive thoughts go away, and well... the next thing I remembered was waking up in my room with a massive hangover, missing half of my clothes. I didn't think much of it until a month later. I got a call from this girl saying that she was pregnant, and I didn't believe her at first because I couldn't recall any moment like that. I obviously told her that I wanted a paternity test because then if it was truly mine I'd like to help her with them. She agreed, and I found out that I'm the dad. I just didn't want her meeting my side of the family - they're criminals and not-so-good people. We only bring bad luck. I know you would only encourage bad behavior out of habit, or you would spread the word around because face it, you're terrible at keeping secrets."

Glenn takes a minute to soak up all of the new information. " can understand wanting the best for your kid. Just because it was an accident doesn't make you a bad person. It's how you handle it. Most guys would run for the hills or simply claim that it was her fa\ult for getting that drunk. I'm proud of you, little cous. You chose to step up and end the cycle of abuse that you were put through as a child. You wanted to give her a good and easy life. I am hurt though because I would have been the BEST uncle!"

Robbie gives him a confused look, "You're my cousin. I don't think that makes you her uncle."

Glenn grins, "You know that I see you as a little brother, you dork." And with that, Robbie rolls his eyes.