Dang Convergence Vol. 1

Chapter Twenty-four Life Of The Halcyon

Chapter Twenty-four

Life Of The Halcyon

Another two weeks went by, making it three weeks since Arkanis' attack on the city. In that time, there'd still been no sighting of the shadow monster nor had Daedalus' scanner picked up on his signature. It was almost like he'd vanished off the face of the earth which, if he was being honest, Dante really hoped he had.

Daedalus was spending all of his time upgrading the computer and hooking up to satellites to boost the reach and efficiency of the anomaly scanners but so far, this had turned up no signs of either one of Arkanis or the thief they met at the museum. Whenever the scanner picked up something, the signal would almost always fade instantly. They'd deduced that this was the effect of the thief using his abilities.

Wombat and Tiger had been assigned to AnomalyWatch and each time there was such a thing with the scanner, the two would go in search of the thief. They never ever found him. It seemed like the thief was doing it on purpose too, deliberately trying to annoy them since nothing had been reported missing in all that time too. And the jewels he'd stolen from the museums hadn't yet popped up elsewhere, which meant he hadn't tried to sell them yet. Chances were that he was stealing for the fun and thrill of it, which Dante supposed was better than doing it for malicious reasons.

Dang, on the other hand, had been taking on gig after gig since the battle against Arkanis. Much of the money he got went to helping those who'd lost stuff during the fight. He'd even volunteered a few times to help with clearing up some of the debris from the battle. Dante and the others had offered to help with this but Dang had politely declined. He'd said it had to be him who did it but Dante knew his doppelganger simply wanted to be left alone.

On a level, Dante suspected something was off with Dang, and it had been since the fight. Once, he'd peeked into the bathroom at the observatory and had seen Dang shirtless and drenched in sweat, standing right in front of the mirror, a slightly concerned expression on his face. Dang had seen him and had left the bathroom without saying anything. He'd spent the next three days out of the observatory.

It turned out he'd spent those three days at the shelter, which was now packed full following the fight with Arkanis. Most shelters across the city were but Dang had gone out of his way to refer as many people as possible to Helping Hands and so it was the most occupied shelter of the lot.

Anyways, with Wombat and Tiger dealing with smaller crimes and searching for the thief around the clock, Daedalus focused on preparing them for future anomalies and Dang seemingly bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders, Dante needed to figure out his own thing to do.

The whole vigilante-slash-superhero gig thing Daniel and Megan were doing didn't exactly interest him, although he had lent them a hand a few times, not that they'd really needed him. And though it was for a good purpose, he didn't exactly think he could do what Dang did and essentially put himself up as a superhuman for hire.

So, he decided he might try to do something in this world that didn't need him to flame up or anything. Something that required him to just be ordinary. He chose to get a job as a lifeguard at a hotel, watching over the pool for most of his afternoons.

The interview had been pretty straightforward. The last lifeguard had decided to hightail it out of town after witnessing the destruction from the fight with Arkanis. The hotel manager had said Dante had the right build for the job.

The hotel was pretty impressive. In fact, Dante wasn't sure "hotel" was the right word for it. It was more a resort, complete with a golf course and archery range, and a pristine, natural environment. The pool was adjoined to a bar and lounge, and that meant it was busy quite a lot. Most of the older men and women preferred to stay in the bar or lounge, passing away the time with glasses of whisky and vodka. This meant that the pool was largely occupied by the younger ones, mostly teenagers like Dante.