Renegade Comics: Arclight

Chapter 13

"Bobby, who is more powerful, Firestar or Speedball?" Robbie asks his acquaintance.

"Firestar." Robbie is instantly offended. Angie curls in her fist in triumph.

"But you know about me - him!" He instantly corrects himself.

"Yeah but she," Bobby emphasizes. "Controls microwaves, can fly, shoot beams of fire,"

"But I - he can fly too!" He pauses. "Sorta."

"Yeah but Firestar can melt faces like a ghost." Angie returns. Bobby motions in agreement. He then discovers something in her response.

"Was that an Indy reference?"

"Possibly."

"Why didn't you tell me this last month, dude?"

"Just didn't come up I guess."

"Favorite film?"

"Temple. The blonde chick."

"I like Raiders the best. The original and all."

"I'm more of a Crystal Skull guy." Robbie adds. The pair glare at him questioningly. Angie chuckles while Bobby facepalms.

"Ok it's the only one I saw." He admits.

Abby puts a hand on his shoulder trying to console him. Her face deflates with disappointment.

"That's legitimately sad." She inserts into the conversation.

"Preach, Blondie" Angie confirms rewarding her with a high five.

"So tell me about your brother." Abby requests.

"Well what do you want to know?"

"Why is he a prick?" Robbie asks deadpanning.

"He merely took advantage of your shortcoming." Bobby deadpans in return, mimicking a Salem-esque response.

"And what shortcoming is that?" Robbie's voice raises, attempting to secure his "superiority."

"Well, while I think you're cool and all," He starts. " I think it was because you were making fun of him for saying he did magic, that he decided to make you look like an idiot." Bobby answers genuinely.

"Well you go tell Merlin," He retorts pointing off in the distance in a random direction, "That I'm not intimidated by his petty fire trick."

"You know," Bobby replies, "That was what he would have called himself if he were to join the team." Angie can no longer contain her laughter as Salem inadvertently makes him for a fool, again.

"It's like he knew you were going to say that!" Abby chimes in adding laughter in herself.

Robbie scoffs and moves on. A  young waitress in an old fashioned uniform trots over with a silver platter of assorted beverages, listing off the different choices as she hands them out.

"A pomegranate starfruit smoothie." She pauses to give Robbie dead fish eyes, "with a single, grape, on top." She slows for emphasis.

"Oh, that's me. Thank you." Robbie oblivious to her hint, thanks the girl for delivering his intricate beverage. With a sigh, she continues.

"One Shirley Temple."

"Me!" Abby polos the waitress' marco. "Thank you very much." Declaring her thanks, she sips into her drink satisfied.

"A chocolate shake." Bobby silently raises his hand in acknowledgement.

"And one water." The waitress finalizes the manifest handing Angie her translucent supplement.

"I'll give you some more time to figure out your food choices." Bobby turns to his new friend.

"Good choice in beverage there, Ange." He elbows her. "Very creative."

"What? I'm on a diet."

"You gotta not worry about that as much. You look sickly because of it." Abby reproves.

"Oh yeah?" Angie challenges.

"Yeah." She confirms. "I'm curvy but I still get whistles from across the street."

"Oh sure. I bet there's guys just lining up right now to speak to you."

The waitress returns. Looking to Abby.

"Oh I forgot to mention, miss. But that gentleman over there paid for your drink." Angie is legitimately finished.

"I'm done." Angie raises her hands in conceit. "You're the queen of the castle, I'm a lowly serf, off with my head."

"See?" The blonde muses to herself as well as Angie. "Oh he's cute too." She waves to the boy who paid for her drink.

"Now Robbie, do you have a girl you're into?" Angie interrogates.

"Well there was this Atlantean girl..." He thinks to himself trying to conjure a memory.

"Wait.... w-what?" Bobby is stunned. "Did you say Atlantis?"

"Mmhmm" Robbie confirms, overly exaggerating. "Atlantis is real and I  was there." He point his thumbs to himself.

"You.. you-you dated an Atlantean girl?" Bobby is in shock.

"Oh totally. Straight Atlantean. Blue skin and everything." A smirk appears on his face.

"Oh, yeah." Angie confirms. "Robbie and I worked together on a team with this Atlantean girl and a few other guys." 

"Thank you, Angie."

"Team didn't last long. Neither did them two." Angie finishes her thought with a smirk.

"Oh come on!" Robbie shouts. "I was just about to look cool!" 

"You gotta stop trying to do that." Bobby adds. "It really doesn't work. It really doesn't." 

"Well how about you then, Bobby? If you're so intelligent, girls must fawn over you!" Robbie points and hollers.

"When did I say I was intelligent?" Bobby answers.

"Seriously? Just answer the question." Robbie is unamused.

"Fine. The closest thing to a girlfriend I ever got is a classmate who I think is interested in me. But I'm not even sure."

"Wow. That sucks." Abby replies in the same sun-shiny tone as before, mainly because of her enthrallment in her drink.

"Then why not go talk to her stupid?" Angie asks.

"I can't keep up with her." Bobby raises his voice. "One moment she's all shy and timid and friendly, the next she has to go, then when I see her again she avoids me." 

"Man, girls are weird." Abby responds, again distracted by her drink. 

"I know!" The boys and Angie resound agreement in unison

The waitress in her uniform returns to the group once more. "I'm terribly sorry, guys. I'm having an off day so I forgot to mention this to you before. It wasn't just one of your drinks. It was two. Your water was also paid for miss." Angie's logic and reasoning is put into question as she attempts to find the person who donated to the cause. After a moment, she surrenders, asking the waitress.

"By?" The waitress places a card onto the table in front of her. Angie looks down to the card to see the following information:

Ellie

-546-0984 

The ginger then looks up to the waitress and slides the card off the table and into her pocket. Her response was simple.

"Check please."