Kevin was back to jail for parole violation, so Karen had the bedroom she shared with him available for herself. That way, there would be no one around to listen to all the things she wanted to know and Kenny wanted to tell her...
"So...You are not an impersonator...You are...You have always been..." She muttered, both sat on the carpet, face to face.
"...Yes..." Kenny scratched the back of his neck, then his unshaven jaw.
"...Why didn't you tell me? Why faking...?"
"...I didn't want Mom and Dad to know. I didn't want you to know that I..."
"You didn't trust me?"
"It's not that. It's just...I wanted you to have something normal in your life, just one thing. I didn't want to be the freaky brother who goes around wearing a cape, who followed you everywhere..."
Karen smiled kindly and was about to reply when their dad, beer in hand, burst in, interrupting their conversation, to tell them what he had just heard on the news. At last, some good news!
"The Whites are justifying the F.P." Steve said, breaking the silence that made the dinner placid, even dull.
"Of course." Linda smirked maliciously. "What did you expect them to say?"
"I am so tired of those White assholes always defending brutality...No, sir!" Steve hit the table. "This is America! These people don't have the right to do what they want with us, like we are cattle!"
"More chicken, Token?" When his mother addressed him, the young man couldn't help feeling a bit startled.
"No, thanks..."
"Heh, and do you know who else has been showing their true colors?" Steve continued, not eating, just talking about this with outrage. "The Harrisons. None of them have posted their opinion about this on Facebook, or anywhere, and Thomas told me the other day that he asked Mr. Harrison, and he just said that he didn't know what to think."
"You know what Mormons are like, so disconnected from reality." Linda said.
"Accomplices, that's what they are."
Token really hoped the television could distract him, but the breaking news brought him more to worry about.
His mom had insisted so much in having Heidi coming over to have dinner with the family...Kyle was so embarrassed because she seemed so eager to see them married, probably because she was feeling old and seeing how her friends' children were getting married and he was still dating, she was getting impatient. Now that Heidi was there, she was being too kind with her, gladly explaining to her the Jewish family traditions, asking so many questions about her life. Kyle didn't complain, of course; he was glad they got along so well...
Heidi was being so patient and nice...He really saw himself married with her...
But...there was just this problem she nor his parents knew, only Ike...Sooner or later, just like in his case, he would have to tell her about his condition. She would probably find out at some point. It was probably not a good idea that she realized the day he was killed in a mission or he accidentally fried something with his lasers...
Would she understand? Flying and shooting lasers out of one's eyes was so heavy but Heidi was amazing, she would surely understand it was not his fault; perhaps...she would find it cool, even!
...Still...what if it scared her? What if she decided to end their relationship?
Good thing it was not the same situation as when he got his powers. He knew how to control himself. She didn't have to know, unless he told her, and he could choose not to.
"It was delicious, Mrs. Broflovski." Heidi complimented her host once she finished her dish.
"Oh, well, I didn't cook today, Gerald did. He's in charge of the kitchen now that I've got so much to do outside of home." Sheila smiled, shaking her hand.
"My compliments to you, then, Mr. Broflovski." Heidi turned her head towards Kyle's father.
"Thank you, but, please, just call me Gerald. Wine?" He offered her.
"No, thank you. I don't drink. Let me help you with that." Heidi stood up and wanted to clear the table.
"No, no, sit down. You are our guest tonight, we will do it." Sheila quickly stopped her, standing up.
"We will do it, Mom." Ike said then, speaking almost for the first time in the evening, picking up the plates quickly and giving Kyle a look.
"My, what got into you?" Sheila smirked, her hands on her hide hips, and Kyle asked himself the same.
"Nothing, just being good sons." Ike replied.
Kyle gave him an inquiring look, but Ike just gestured him to meet him in the kitchen.
"It was about time!" Sheila said. "Well, in the meantime I'll show you some old photos of Kyle when he was a baby that I'm sure you'll find adorable."
Kyle didn't want to clear the table, he wanted to stop that big embarrassing moment, but Ike insisted him from the kitchen and he understood that his brother wanted to talk to him in private.
"What?" He asked, once they were alone.
"I am going to delete all profiles for the Freedom Pals. The group will officially cease to exist." Ike muttered, putting the dishes inside the sink.
"...What?" Kyle looked at him wide-eyed. "Are you giving up? You can't take that kind of decision without the team's consent! We are the ones who should take it!"
"No, you don't. Because someone else has taken the decision for you."
"What do you mean?"
"Haven't you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Mom has been very busy, all right...Directing this whole campaign against you. And you know what Mom is like when she puts something into her head..."
Ike then showed Kyle a news article in his phone.
Kyle really wanted to believe it was a fake.
«FREEDOM PALS DECLARED ILLEGAL IN COLORADO, REST OF THE STATES WILL FOLLOW. The social uproar has been listened to. This morning, the State Government has approved the motion to declare the vigilantes a criminal band. Mrs. Mary McDaniels, Mayor of South Park, town in which this group mainly operated, has praised the decision and sends a warning: 'Freedom Pals will be unmasked and brought to justice, whether they cooperate or not. If they turn themselves in and help us capture the others, we might be compassionate to them. They have three days before we get them out of their hole.'»
That meeting, all of them together, felt almost like the last one. It was in the air, this feeling of doom...
"So...What do you think?" Ike asked.
No one replied immediately.
"What can we do? Forget about this whole thing, that's it. That's all we can do." Craig was the first to talk, his arms crossed.
"Just like that?" Scott turned his head to him.
"Yep. Go back to being just who we are."
"They will still hunt us down, won't they?" Stan muttered.
"How? I don't know how they're gonna do that." Craig turned around to answer him.
"And...what? Next time there is a fire, something big attacks, someone goes mad and starts shooting...we will do nothing?" Scott's volume increased.
"We still can help, but if...nobody sees us." Token replied.
"If that's even possible..." Wendy sighed.
"I can't believe you! We've got these powers that can help so many people, and we're just gonna...use them to pop popcorn and change the tires of our car from now on? We're gonna let people die so they don't see us?" Scott insisted, looking around.
"I mean, who asked us to become superheroes anyway?" Stan sighed, looking at his feet. "We should have known something like this would happen at some point..."
Scott looked around, and found no support. Only friends—or that was what he used to think—, turning their faces away. Letting his arms drop at his sides, he let out an exasperated sigh and walked out from the base without saying anything.
"Scott. Scott!" Wendy called him, not moving from her place.
"It must be hard to become just Scott Malkinson, the diabetic..." Clyde muttered, resting against the top rail of his chair.
"It will be hard, but...there's nothing else we can do...All we can do is dissolve the Freedom Pals and...just go on...as if none of this would have happened..." Kyle said.
Tweek and Wendy exchanged a look full of sorrow.
Timmy let out a long sigh.
"Come on, everyone. This is not the end of the world...We can still hang out and stuff..." Clyde said.
But for some reason it seemed like things were not going to be the same...
Not saying anything, Kenny stood up and walked out. Timmy followed. Then Craig and Tweek left together without saying a thing, not even to each other. Token teleported.
"If there's a moment when we need your jokes is now, man..." Clyde addressed Jimmy.
But Jimmy looked at him without a smile.
"...I-I don't know, Clyde, I'm not much in the m-m-mood for jokes right now..." He said, and the next second he wasn't there.
That headline stayed in Kyle's head for days. He just couldn't believe it...He couldn't...He had so much trouble getting used to the idea...
He kind of knew what Scott was feeling. Why having those powers if all he could do with them was hiding them? All the thrill, what made the days seem more exciting, his life even have more value...It was all gone...Just like that...He even realized how...
Heidi said he looked distant lately. His mother thought he was sick. At work he made too many mistakes that gave him a bad time with his boss.
"Kyle! Hello!"
He thought about it too much, had it walking around like a zombie. He didn't even notice Mrs. Cartman calling him a million times until she approached so much it was impossible not to see her.
"Oh, uh, hi, Mrs. Cartman. Sorry, I didn't hear you..." Kyle answered.
"How are you, dearie? I haven't seen you in so long. My, my, how tall you are!" Liane smiled at him, and it was true: Kyle had grown up to be tallest guy in South Park.
"I'm...well, I can't complain. Thank you."
"That's nice. Uhm, I hate to bother you, you surely have places to be, things to do, but...I've been suffering from back pain lately. I smoke so much Tegridy to deal with it I can barely stand...Could you...help me with these bags, please? Eric is not at home and he doesn't usually return till late in the morning..."
Yes, he was too busy thinking about penises to remember he had a mother. Not that he would have helped her out if he was sane, Kyle thought. He guessed he could and, most of all, should, help her, so he accepted.
"You are so kind..."
He helped her get the bags into the car and drove himself, since it hurt her to even drive, and once at home, left them in the kitchen.
"Thank you so much. Do you practice any sports, Kyle?"
"Basketball, from time to time."
"I can tell! Would you like to stay for a drink? Won't that bother you?"
With her son away from home all day long, he supposed she was alone and desperate to have someone to talk to, so, again, he just didn't have the heart to say no. Liane then served him a lemonade and another one for herself and sat by his side.
There was a bit of an awkward silence. She looked at him with a smile.
"I've heard you are with Eric's ex-girlfriend, Heidi."
"Uhm, yes."
"She's so smart and funny...Congratulations. I think you look so cute together. It's a pity that she and Eric just didn't click but some people are not meant together. I'm happy for you two...I really am..."
Didn't she remember what Cartman did to Heidi or did he make up a story about why Heidi left him?, Kyle wondered.
"Thank you." He simply said.
"Eric is spending so much time out of the house, one of these days he might surprise me."
Well, there could be someone who was attracted by mindless, fat whores...Oh, he felt so cruel thinking about this, when he contributed into making Cartman like this...Not that he pitied him, he had it coming, but his mother...,that was a different story...
"You've grown so much I can't stop looking at you, Kyle...that you are making me feel old!" Liane continued to gaze at him.
"Don't say that, ma'am. You look...great." Kyle replied.
And he was not being flattering. She really looked good for someone her age and after birthing a whale like Cartman. When the boys from school and him hit puberty and started becoming so interested in the opposite sex that they could overlook that the lady in question was a classmate's mom, all times they had played 'smash or pass' she was unanimously smashed and never passed.
This whole situation, with her sitting by his side, drinking, praising his looks, both of them adults now, made him feel like they were like in the beginning of a porn movie starring her.
"You are too kind." She giggled. "Oh, I remember when you and the others were this small and came to play the four of you together and..." Her phone rang, interrupting her. "Oh, excuse me." She got up with difficulty and walked to the kitchen to talk.
Kyle remained sat, just looking around. Memories were chasing him as well. All the times he had been in that living room as a kid, playing games, scheming, calling on Cartman's bullshit, just fooling around...It felt like that happened centuries before, almost like a dream...Why did they even hang out with Cartman in the first place, he asked himself? At what moment did him, Stan and Kenny decide it was a good idea to let him join them? He had the feeling that Kenny was the one guy that started the gang in kindergarten, the three of them meeting through him. Or was it only Stan and him in the beginning and Kenny and Cartman joined later? He wasn't sure. He would have loved to know. He was a toddler back then, but even a toddler could notice that Cartman was bad news...
Liane returned in little time.
"Sorry, dear. Ever since Eric has been...taking a long break to cultivate other areas of his life, I have taken charge of his business. Ever since the Freedom Pals have proved to be criminals in a suit, weapon sales and security solutions have increased so much I barely have the time to sit! That's why my back hurts all the time. They make people feel safer, you know. Oh, I hope you, Stan, Kenny and your little friends are careful. Those creatures have no pity or decency..."
"...Yeah, they're scary..."
Of course he couldn't tell Heidi...If South Park's most complacent neighbor hated them, what would Heidi think...?
They gave them three days. Three days to unmask and subject themselves to the public will. Maybe it was naive from them to think that they would do it. That was why the PC children kept spreading information about them on social media, their streamings becoming widely followed, their tweets stared trending topics. The Freedom Pals hadn't been seen in a long time, and they wouldn't show their faces after everything the public opinion was finding out thanks to them. How problematic they were without anybody noticing, blinded by their abilities; the implication that they were probably serving a higher power, like a corporation or a foreign government; their superpowers allowing them to do what they wanted whenever they pleased.
Three days, and they hadn't had the decency to answer to the demands of the population. It was time, then, to get the snake out of its hole.
Smuggler Maplebeard the Pirate King would tell them.
The visible, digital face, the contact between the vigilantes and Barbrady, the communications network, the eye in the sky. They used social media to promote the heroes, find out where their help was needed. The profiles were now abandoned, constantly mentioned only to be insulted and constantly reported—now they would be the breadcrumb trace that would take them to the Freedom Pals.
Bailey had always had a way with computers. He used all tools in his hands to trace them.
It wasn't easy. While his siblings watched him work in the beginning, they eventually grew tired of watching his seemingly nonexistent progress and just approached to give him the meals he was missing. This Maplebeard knew what he was doing and not only used disposable e-mail addresses, but also filled the info required with data so ridiculous it could only be made-up. They never shared anything personal about themselves, their voice in the videos was distorted.
He barely focused on his classes, making him end up in his own parents' office.
"But Mom, Dad, I'm doing justice!"
Although his father was all for giving the Freedom Pals what they deserved, his mother didn't want him to sacrifice his grades and future. He didn't listen. It was the PC children's obsession. He sacrificed much sleep for this glorious task...
And so one day, his efforts were paid off.
"Folks! I got it! I got their I.P address! Now I only have to use this geolocator and..."
The children crowded around him, in front of the screen. Bailey introduced the code and pressed the 'Enter' button.
The address appearing made them exchange a shocked look.
"...Do you think she...?" River muttered.
"Not her. But what if...?" Emory said.
They decided to call her.
"...WHAT WHAT WHAT?! MY HOUSE?!"
Sheila bit her tongue and looked up.
"...And you say they couldn't hack our Wi-Fi?"
...
She ended the call and went upstairs trying not to make any noise. Kyle and Gerald were still at work and wouldn't return in a while, the only one in the house with her was Ike. He was on the computer, with social media...So busy with that he didn't notice her at the door, watching the screen, how he deleted profile after profile...
Stan had order City Wok for dinner, but he was the only one eating. Wendy had not touched her food, she was just sat in there, watching the television.
"You should eat something. You look like a walking corpse." Stan said, slurping his noodles.
"I just don't feel my stomach will hold it..." Wendy replied, hugging a cushion.
"You have to eat. In your state..."
"...Maybe it's for the best..."
"What do you mean?"
Wendy pressed her lips and gave him a severe look.
"Say it, Stan. Just say it. Say you want me to lose the baby."
"What?" Stan left the food on the table and looked at her as if she had gone crazy.
"And once I've had a miscarriage, you will be happy again! Come on! It's in your face the whole time! You don't talk to me anymore! You barely look at me, as if I disgusted you! And you haven't come to any of the prenatal exams!"
"I don't want that..." Stan said, offended.
"Sure you do!" Wendy threw the cushion away. "I'm not stupid! You don't want to be a father!"
"And you?" His voice turned sour. "You want to be a mother?"
"...At first I didn't know but..."
"Yes or no?"
"...Yes! Because it's your baby and mine! Because I love you and I want to be the mother of your children! I am willing to take the next step in our relationship. But you're disappointing me, Stan, I expected you to be brave and decent, and you're acting like the child here!"
"Why does everyone expect me to be happy about this and...and just go with the flow?" Stan stood up. "You want to know? I'm scared, that's the honest truth! I am scared as fuck, I was not ready for this at all, and I'm afraid I'll fuck up!"
"Again with the whole 'I'm afraid I'll fuck up'?" Wendy exclaimed.
"Yes! Because this time it's not you just leaving me! We always find a way to get back together...This time, if I do something wrong, I will ruin the life of a human being! My own kid's! ...Don't you understand?! I don't want my kid to hate me like I hate my dad!"
Wendy stared at him, her anger vanishing slowly.
"...They're not going to hate you, Stan..."
"Sure they will...I don't know what I'm supposed to do, how to be a dad...No one prepares you for this kind of shit...No one warned me about this, or asked me my opinion before sending me this kind of responsibility..."
"And do you think I know? Do you think I'm not scared?"
"You always knew what to do..."
Stan sat again. Wendy gazed at him for a while, before placing a hand on her abdomen. Seconds later, a notification popped on Stan's phone.
"Check it." Wendy ordered him.
Stan obeyed, sighing. It was an audio.
He opened it and heard like a pumping—he couldn't identify it.
"...That's our baby's heartbeat." Wendy said in low voice. Stan gazed at her for long, then at the screen. "She's a tiny little thing of the size of a strawberry that knows nothing about the exterior. In six weeks or so she will be able to hear, your voice will be one of the first things she will know from the outside, and I hope you will say kinder things to her."
Stan raised his head to her.
"...She? It's a girl?" Wendy nodded with a smile, and he found himself making a grimace closely resembling one. "How can you know, if it's so small?"
"Technology, you idiot. Welcome to the 21st century."
Wendy walked to him to wrap her arms around him and kiss his cheek.
"This took us by surprise but...we will do it the best we can...We can learn from the mistakes of our parents...Don't be scared, Stan...You will be a terrific father, I am sure of it..."
Why did he always screw up, why did he always let his doubts take the best of him? She was right, he was such an idiot...But she still wanted to be by his side...He hoped...the kid thought the same too...
His hand caressed her hair, her chin, then traveled down to her silhouette, until it ended up touching her slightly curved belly for the first time in her pregnancy...
He raised his head to look at her into the eyes and kiss her, when he saw a disturbed expression.
"What?"
"Stan, something...Something's wrong..."
"Do you feel bad again?"
Wendy broke the hug, staring into space. "Ike..." She then turned to him with her eyes open wide with worry. "There's been a security breach! Ike has been exposed! They know Ike's with us!"
And so their intimate moment was ruined.
When Ike heard his phone ring, he was descending the stairs. He took his phone out of his jeans and read:
«YOU GOT DOXXED»
He was quiet for a second, felt as if they had made him go through the Ice Bucket Challenge. Then, he put his phone back to its place and jumped the remaining steps to rush towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Sheila asked him, sitting on the couch, seemingly reading a magazine.
"I'll...be right back." Ike simply replied.
"I said where are you going..." Sheila raised her eyes. "Smuggler Maplebeard."
Ike froze with his hand on the doorknob.