Sidekick V-Sides 4: Birthday Visit
You've got to keep your roots strong
Triple Kitty Swirl!
Lando, Shitpancake, and Jayne all curled up together!
Heads up to new readers:
This story is part of a series. Luckily, you can read the whole Sidekick series for free!
…Time for this week’s story…
Sidekick V-Sides 4: Birthday Visit
“Inverse! There you are, bruddah. We need a fourth player,” Bullet hollered from across the lounge.
“Sorry, I'm out. I've got to visit my brother for his birthday.” Inverse waved.
Inverse hurried to wrap his gift. A few minutes later, Hydraxia called over the speaker that Inverse had a food delivery. He stuffed it neatly in a thermal bag. Once everything was packed, he put it all in an infinite pocket and departed, promising to be back that night.
A hop through Pencil Pete’s portal painting and he was in the backyard of a small, yellow two-story house. He rang the rear doorbell and a short, portly black woman wearing a flower-patterned headband answered the door.
“Darius! Boy I knew that was you. I was wondering when you'd get here. You're not getting into trouble are you?” The woman wrapped her arms around Inverse as he squatted to hug her
“Don't worry, Miss Williams, I've got a good job that mostly keeps me out of trouble.”
“Mostly? Darius, I swear to God and everybody if you're gettin’ into trouble, I'll kill you myself.” She yanked on his ear. He winced in pain, asking for her to stop. “Jordan! Jordan, get down here! He's up there playing his damn video games. Darius, honey, you want some sweet tea?” Miss Williams waddled to the kitchen.
“Yes please, ma’am, thank you.”
Inverse was half-done with his tea when his brother's heavy footsteps cascaded down the stairs. He smiled at his older brother and before long, the two headed out the door. Inverse asked how everything was going living with Miss Williams. It turned out, Jordan had taken to calling her, Auntie Williams. After living with her for four years, it made things feel like home. Inverse understood, and was happy that Jordan could live out a semblance of a normal life.
They reached a graveyard and Jordan pleaded with Inverse to use his powers to cross the gate. Inverse held into his brother and grabbed the gate with this other hand. A second later, they were on the other side of the gate, with Inverse having inverted their position. A simple trick for Inverse that, to Jordan, never got old.
Their stroll through the graveyard ended at a gravestone. The name read: Treyvon Freeman.
“Happy birthday, bro.” Inverse and Jordan sat down. “The only thing I brought you is our company, but I hope you don't mind that I brought something for Jordan.”
“You brought me something?”
“Yeah. Miss Williams told me you got all A’s and B’s in school, and an A in math! That's wild. I've never been good at math. So, I brought you a reward.” Inverse reached into his pocket and pulled out the box he had wrapped earlier. Jordan eagerly unwrapped it.
“New headphones! These are really good. Wow, thanks bro.” Jordan hugged his brother then opened the box to examine his new gear.
“I'm sure Miss Williams won't be happy about those, but whatever. You've got to have fun in life.”
“I'm so ready. I can't wait to get home and try these. I'll be able to hear people sneaking up behind me real good.”
“In the game, maybe, but you won't hear Miss Williams coming to put a hurtin’ on you because you can't hear her calling you.”
“True. I better be careful,” Jordan said. His head lilted and his body fell with a heavy burden.
“Hey, what's wrong?” inverse asked.
“So, I heard the Justice Guild got broken into and they let all the bad guys out. Is that true?”
“It's kind of true, but they didn't let everyone out. They left the worst criminals behind, or so I heard.” Inverse said nothing of his involvement.
“Are you sure?”
“I have it on good authority,” Inverse said confidently.
“Okay, good. I've been worried about that. Auntie Williams said the Justice Guild would protect us if they did get free, but a bunch of them are dead now.”
“Well, some of them are still around. I heard Gargoyleman is still in Newmoon City doing his thing. Paragonman is still flying around. Who can beat Paragonman?”
“That's true, but are they going to save us from dad if he shows up again? What happens if dad finds us? We ain't nobody special. Why would they save us?”
“Hey, don't be thinking about that stuff.” Inverse placed a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “Dad isn't here anymore, don't let him take away your happiness. He ain't coming back, and if he does, you've got me to protect you. Here.” Inverse pulled a prepaid phone from his pocket. He called himself then hung up and handed Jordan the phone. “If Dad ever shows up, call me and I'll be here in less than a minute.”
“Less than a minute? Don't play.”
“I'm serious, less than a minute. A guy I work with can teleport me anywhere. I can be here before you even hang up the phone.”
“Seriously? Then how come you don't visit more?” Jordan said quickly.
“Come on, bro, I've got to work and stuff. Besides, I don't want to put you in danger. I'm still a criminal, technically.”
“Living with Auntie Williams is fine, but I want to live with you. I could work with you. I'm old enough.”
“Slow down, little man. You’re turning thirteen this year. Just enjoy playing games without any responsibility. Let me take care of all the adult stuff, okay? When I feel confident that I can keep you safe, you can come live with me. Deal?”
“Deal.” They shook hands.
“All right, I don't want to talk about this stuff in front of Trey. We've got to catch him up.” Inverse pulled the temperature controlled bag out of his pocket and set up their picnic. They hung out at their brother’s grave for hours then said a prayer before leaving.
When Inverse got home and the others asked about his brother, he said, “It was nice to see him again.”