Renegade Comics: Arclight

Chapter 6

"Well, Bobby, there's really only one way to say this. You're a mutant." Salem starts bluntly, his eyes locking with his brother's.

"What? No. I'm the normal one. You are supposed to be the 'magic superhero' person!" Bobby makes air quotes

"Dude, by what you told me, which was that a supernatural ability manifested itself in a major period of stress, plus the fact that I used my 'superhero magic,'" Salem mockingly makes air quotes "to check and double check," Salem motions to his "scientific" equipment that consisted of tools and machines that seemed to have a more mystical purpose. "tells me that you are a mutant.

"Well maybe the magic's wrong."

"Not possible." 

"How is it completely impossible?"

"Because there are more than two pairs of eyes that have seen what you are."

"You told someone?" Bobby yells.

"Yes." Salem holds up a glass sphere in his hand. "I asked for omniscient multidimensional beings who have no concern for this or any plane of existence to check if this world's Bobby Polon happens to be a mutant."

"Did you really?"

"No, that would be stupid. I used it to look at your DNA, compared to mine, talked to myself from other dimensions, and looked at places on this world to see if the difference existed in all mutants. It does, but the mutation is located in a different place in the human body's DNA for different effects."

"Why do I not trust this?" Bobby is unamused. 

"Well, because of the way humans reacted to magic on this dimension, it's a very esoteric practice now, and really only makes sense to those who already practice it, which makes it a very hard community to enter." Salem enters his sage mode, coined affectionately by Bobby. "It's like an inside joke, the punchline being that you never can unsee anything you do see."

"Okay..."

"Would it make you feel better if I swore by it?" Mockingly, Salem asks.

"Maybe." Bobby responds almost as if he was asking a question.

"I swear by the green in my eyes that you are a mutant, and the only way to deal with it is to control it." He mockingly swears, with a serious message.

"Control?" 

"Yes."

"But I don't want to control it. I want to suppress it."

"And the only way to do that is to practice using them. You'll have to live with them and just not use them very often, but you're gonna have to use them."

"I can't!"

"You won't."

"There has to be another way."

"Because of Diana and Arthur, right?"

"No..."

"Yes it is."

"No, Salem it isn't!"

"Yes, that's exactly the reason! That blue light makes you  relive that memory all the time, doesn't it? Like flicking a switch." Bobby starts to become weary of Salem's bluntness.

"You're being insensitive!"

"You can't be serious."

"I'm telling you how it is! You're taking this very lightly."

"I'm telling you how things are. You're seriously going to bottle this up until you explode, literally?" 

"If I have to I will!"

"Do you hear what you're saying?"

"You seriously think ragging on me is helping?" 

"Look. I miss them too. But they aren't my parents. They didn't raise me. I didn't see them die, you did. And guess what? Mine have been dead for years now. That's how I got here, remember?" Salem motions in a circle, mentioning the house. "So pardon me if I don't feel inclined that the first thing I should do is drop to my knees and cry my eyes out when yours are gone too.." 

"You're really gon-"

"I'm not finished. It's been two years since then and Vi's moved on. She's got a job, she's happy and she puts food on the table. I've been looking for a place to work for almost a year now, and we've both enabled you to dig yourself this hole!

"What do you want me to do then?"

 He changes his inflection to concern. We want you to pick yourself up, man."

"And what's that supposed to mean, huh?" Salem is shoved back. "What am I supposed to do, just go and forgive-"

"And what's there to forgive? At the same moment your parents were killed, you burned their killer to ash! So what justice is there left to seek then?" Bobby steps forward, violent intent in his eyes. The brothers draw their swords. Salem catches the first swing, and drops the elder to the ground. He lifts Bobby's head to the door, leaving him speechless. "You're in denial. If you don't want to listen to reason, the door's right there. You've got two good legs to stand and walk on, and two good arms to lift yourself off the ground with. What we want, is for you to get yourself out of this self loathing phase and make yourself whole again before that chance is gone." Salem releases the catch and returns to his work. "They are you're parents, Bobby. You need to honor them, not me." With that, he commences a cease-fire and returns to his previous work. "Now get ready for your gymnastics. You're getting good and I'd hate to see you let go of your potential. Both Vi and I are proud of you. Salem snaps his fingers causing the radio next to his contraptions table to flick on.

"So that's it? We're done?"

"Arguing? Yes. Anything else you would have said wouldn't have the same impact now that we're both calmed down. Plus I have my jazz on."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Miles Davis is not to be ignored."

"He's dead."

"Why do you play a dead composer's music? Why exhibit a dead artist's pieces? Why observe a dead bard's play?"

"Right...."

With a chuckle, Salem snaps his fingers, stopping the radio's functions along with the motion of knick-knacks and noises of his contraptions, and opens the door for Bobby. "C'mon. Let's go."