The stars twinkled bright overhead as Captain and charge took the bus back to New Jersey. Inside the apartment, a game of stair racing to work off prickly encounters, one to leave Leela laughing against a handrail, and Mayfield in huffs, puffs and swallows of air.
"Come on bub, we haven't hit the fifth floor yet! You know you can't rely on miracles forever."
"You wanna talk lady"—he heaved—"or you wanna heart attack?"
In gripped knees and heaves once up top, he found his floor cleaned spotless. Housekeeping must've sanitised and perfumed without questions, but the headbutts still replayed in both their minds, still the splatters of blood and brain matter…
Leela turned to him: "Okay, I have to ask. Why were you so adamant on ending things like that? What if things had been reversed?"
"Would've been easier and painless to take the booth, but you'd have been screwed if I did so. And if I used the cream, I'll put it this way… In this head lies a realm that even I'm afraid of."
"Always something to remind me; by the way, here's for the window." She handed him a 500-dollar Gore.
"Appreciate that AND the fact you intervened. Doubt I'd have fared any better if I dropped over the edge. Speaking of drops…"
He moved for the kitchen to get his 'DOT n' Trot' going; bound to be a world of stories, and approaching the weekend, it still seemed like the right time.
"Care for one? For going beyond commercial strength, the flavour really hits the spot."
The grinning nod could've worried him: "A three-shot and mix if you don't mind. Hell of a week, even forgetting how it began."
"The lass can hold her liquor," Mayfield hummed, as he poured her request and took his seat. "Even for drinks though, can't guarantee things will get any better. Hell, I wouldn't want that to be the intention."
"We shall see… Are you going to go first, or shall I?"
A quick swallow, his soul warming as his throat: "Ahhhh… Perhaps I will, since mine's a great deal briefer."
Leela eyed him as she took a swallow herself, a "Hmm" of sorts for the taste.
"So you know the whos, whens and possibly wheres of me, but nothing else… Was always an outcast, all began through the dozen 'specialists' who believed I'd be a waste of space, a vegetable, a drain on our world. For however long I lived, anyway."
A small drink, before he continued: "But I'd still believe in man over money thanks to my family; how they lavished love, encouraged every step, helped me to learn wherever they could. Made it their mission to middle finger that lot. To prove I'd be everything they said I couldn't."
Further taps and swallows: "For all I wished to pay such dedication back, I'd never fail to come up empty. Thought I'd get the world upon graduating, but never left the street. I'd volunteer, I'd join an agency, I'd take the worst jobs just to leg up, yet I ended up on welfare all the same. More I mooched, more I believed that money over man, over myself, mattered more."
The moment came to clench his fists and focus… He already had his cry.
"Few months after my 25th, I witnessed the drags of my parents' bodies as I got a glass of water. Half a dozen creatures dragging them, all I saw before they blanked my mind and knocked me out. Thought I'd wake up and hug them, that it'd just be a nightmare, but no… After that and my brother exiling me, all I'd see besides overdue bills were the bottom of several bottles. Far as I remember, that's that."
Leela shook her head, even took a large gulp from her glass. The cheap jokes he'd crack, the storms he'd unleash, the obsessions over superpowers, or the mundane pleasures he'd find… All made sense to her now.
"Mine begins by being a doorstop baby, never remembering my parents. Left me behind at Cookieville, under the would-be care of Warden Vogel. All I had was a basket, a blanket, sleepwear and a strange letter, which none could decode back then nor now."
Her turn to take a drink: "Sleeping there alone's a tragedy, among my classmates, a complete nightmare. For this obvious reason,"—she pointed to her eye—"the kids singled me out, spat forth no shortage of names no matter where or when. Find my old room now, I'd still hear 'One-Eye!' or 'Bedwetter!' or 'Stupid!' down those empty halls."
"Good grief, if that didn't lower me like a lizard…"
"Just got worse as years passed, even after I took up Arcturan Kung Fu. Thought it'd end after some fists to their faces, but the tormentors only got sneakier. Culminated in their cruellest prank of all; dousing me in grease as a personal send-off." In between odd jobs, I'd catch an advertisement to become a Starship Captain; grew so obsessed towards the idea that for seven years straight, I'd work sixteen to eighteen hour days, six a week. Had it all set up, and then out came the career chips."
"Wow, sure puts the 'no-one and nothing to lose' in a different light."
"The city cut my reality check, chipping me to become a Counsellor. Over those years I'd only know Ipji, Terry and Lou among hundreds of unfrozen stiffs, thought that'd be all I was good for. One stiff however gave me the perfect chance to quit and pursue the dream."
"And who did that turn out to be?"
"Philip J. Fry, just Fry for short, on December 31st, 2999."
Once Mayfield got a picture, his eyes could've popped in recognition. The exact same photo from the safe, the connection well and truly established. How deep it ran, and how the Miracle Cream was involved, however…
"While checking off his new career, chasing him down, and hearing his pleas, I'd meet his robot buddy Bender. Never knew how, but he became my friend as well."
Mayfield got more photos, and in a nod, he confirmed the original crew before him & Amy. Guts again turned inward for that steel-grey robot, a rippling belch and malicious laugh as he set Fry's face alight, watching while he cooked alive.
"Son-of-a-bitch, and I thought the Captain was an arsehole…"
"Sorry, what was that?"
"Thinking out loud. My apologies."
"Perhaps on that note, did you ever learn about why your parents were taken?"
"For all the time, travel and time travel, I never had a clue. Must've called the police ten times a day, hoping I hadn't been borne from pure air. Those 'boys in blue' soon had handcuffs ready for me; moments after their visit and my brother's phone-call, I just ran and never looked back."
Just sighed and rubbed his face after, her floor now his to walk. And did he ever have the questions…
"When we first met, you saw the wretched baby I had become, and yet you deemed it fair to just kick the shit out of me, drown my lungs in water. From that day, that's virtually the only side I've known of you. Why always that instinct towards putting the 'vile' in violence?"
"You caught me on the most awful anniversary of all, and I tend to let first impressions be the last ones. Takes a great deal of convincing, one way or another, to change my mind."
Could've rushed to the ensuite once he heard the details of her nightmares; to say nothing from her tour of before.
"Oh, oh geez…"
"You were the lucky sucker to get their head kicked in, I guess. As time went on though, I knew I couldn't justify what I'd done, that perhaps I WAS the monster others always deemed me to be."
"So that's why you bothered helping me out at Cookieville then? To see if you still had a human side?"
"To convince myself rather, though we both know how that worked out. Still, before I drenched you awake I got reminders of not just my friends, but parts of myself as well. Even aside from where your head laid."
"An entire life gambled for a worthless squatter… How so?"
"The clothes you wore, virtually the same as Fry's. Of myself, the exile, loneliness and defining flaw. And of Bender, where do I begin? In fact, I was adamant that you were him made human… Let's just say he and I aren't on the best of terms."
Mayfield might've rigged himself to explode for such a comparison, but the more he listened to Leela's observations, the more he thought it over, the more it sank him down the couch. The love of money, when he had none. The two years of constant vices, the only things to love him. His desire to finding shortcuts, no matter the cost.
The evil thoughts, were they to ever manifest... "I guess I really get it now."
"For all you went through growing up, how little you seem to hate others... To not be on 'best terms', what the hell did he do?"
"If you asked me that before now, I might've slapped the tongue out of your mouth. But instead let me take you back in time, piece by piece, so you can understand. First, before all my stories, what would've been your first impressions of Fry and Bender?"
"None too flattering ones, judging by the safe and the mess. I'd have told that ginger-haired sucker to shut down and dump that tin bastard, pronto. How could those two ever be friends?"
"Thing was, for the rudest borough I've ever known, you couldn't have found a more golden-hearted guy than him. Naïve though he was for giving everybody constant chances, that was how he stopped Bender from committing suicide, how he changed both our outlooks on life."
"No wonder your love burned for him still. And as for Bender?"
"Before he helped me develop a razor edge of sorts, I was too goody-shoed a person, too willing to never question the world around me. Put it another way, did you honestly think I'd have cared so much if the three of us didn't do EVERYTHING together?"
As she regaled all their tales as main crew, from apartment hunts to Slurm Factory tours, from witnessing crab mating—"Eurgh!"—to intergalactic battles, and from stupefying brain aliens to screwing with time itself, Mayfield didn't even care for the clock as he sat with eyes wide and jaw unhinged. Slow sips the whole way through, and soon a request for another three-shot.
"Damn, think I should've bought more reminiscing mix," Mayfield muttered as he waddled back and tended bar. "And for being such an in-your-face arsehole, I suppose even Bender had his moments."
Gave a nod as two full glasses became theirs once more, Mayfield a little more at ease and Leela virtually unaffected.
"There'd be no odder trio you'd find, but it was a kinship I imagined to last a lifetime. Hell, I've known Amy since I started, and I'd never consider her that close. To be blunt, what hopes did you ever have after our first encounter?"
Could've taken a raging lungful of air, but chose to shrug: "Oh, who the hell was I kidding? Whatever circle I had in recent years, it was hose-watered summer concrete compared to yours."
"It's funny; growing up I once thought the same thing. Everyone to look my way wanted only my misery, everyone I looked TO wanted nothing to do with me. Even my sensei, my mentor always believed that I 'lacked the will of the warrior'."
"Psh, if what you did to me was 'lacking will', please lack more. But even for all this, I'm guessing we're still not at that point, are we?"
"No, but if nothing else, your slate's wiped clean again. Everything had been my fault, just as it was last time, and the times before…"
"The times before? What else haven't you told me?"
"That's not a story for you to know."
"Why not? I'm sure the cabin, your tribute and Miracle Cream plays into this, right?"
"Back off kid, unless you want to cross a serious line."
"So what if I do, and what choice do you have? Remember who came here seeking amends; if divulging such a secret happens to be the price, then pay up."
"Why the hell do you care? They're nobody to you, and in fact, they've been the source of your problems since you somehow ended up here."
"Bullshit Leela, it's ALWAYS been you. Like the cream was a catalyst to my problems, Bender and Fry were catalysts to yours. If they're troubling you, I'd wager they're gonna trouble me, and Gods forbid Planet Express as well."
"To think you were prepared to kill yourself to avoid our reach. Now you're kissing our asses and acting like the company man?"
"If you rather I didn't come back, just say the word. I'll vouch for you against the Professor, we go our separate ways. But I'll be damned if in working together, I suffer your problems without knowing why."
Leela stood up off the couch, took a few paces, and had a bigger gulp than the kid imagined. Her hands went to clench, as she stared her charge down.
"I swear if you make mention of it again, I will…"
"What HAVEN'T you done yet, Leela?! Quite frankly, you've been a villain in my eyes already, and you haven't even gone postal yet. Is that how you want your friends to remember you?"
At that point, Leela's entire glass of whiskey mix vanished down her throat, as the wounds she left to fester and infect began to crack, to ooze, open. Her glass clutched to whiten knuckles, she turned to freeze her charge in place.
"Two years ago, Fry, Bender and I had banded together as The New Justice Team, off the back of Zoidberg's 'miracle' discovery. I was team leader Clobberella, Fry was Captain Yesterday, Bender would be Super King. Together, we'd enjoy this side hustle for some time; stopped several key crimes, earned plenty of merits, got keys to the city, even grabbed a sponsorship or two."
"Superheroes, huh?"
"Yeah, and trust me kid, it's no comic book. As we foiled more villains and built up our reputation, we grew more public. Such publicity meant exposure; of our secrets, of our HQ, of even where we lived. In fact, when we stopped the Gemerald heist of a fat safari-suited freak called The Zookeeper, he'd soon pay us a video call and threaten to feed cages of civilians to his starved piranhas. We would've refused, if not for one issue."
"Running out of the cream, I take it?"
"Exactly, and so we had no choice. Somehow we bluffed through the heist, took that glowing green rock and saved the citizens. Not only were we forced to retire, the jerks acted as if they'd been 'saved by crooks'. Wanted to slap them, but instead, we returned to our normal lives. Thought it was all over, until we got that anonymous call."
"What did they ever want?"
"In blubbering tears, they begged us to do one final job, under promise of great reward, to save the 'last' Peruvian Spider-Fly."
"If that's what I'm thinking it is, I'd have left that sucker to die."
"Well we didn't, or rather, I didn't. Might've thought it too cute to leave behind. What would you imagine had happened then?"
"The reason why you kept the cabin and tribute? Saved an emergency Miracle Cream? The floor's yours here."
"We rushed headlong into a set-up, an ambush. Surrounded by a bunch of lethal, obsidian-like creatures to where that Spider-Fly had been stationed. Could still hear that creepy laugh, as he rewarded us by 'settling accounts'. As we were getting beaten to death, Bender broke free and ditched us to save himself. Fry wound up taken hostage, and I became a sure witness to his doom. Been over twelve months to the day…"
In his eyes a dawn of sudden realisation, especially as Leela leaned in close, seized his hoodie and stared him down. Didn't even have time to set his drink aside.
"Do you understand, now, what I meant by complacency killing? Why I envied and resented your little sob-story? Why I hated the times you brought up the past? Why I lost my mind at your 'discoveries', lies and lack of understanding?"
Just a nervous shake of the head… "Jesus, I had no idea."
"Of course you didn't, because for all your bitching, I would've grabbed the life you lived in a God-forsaken instant!"
A snatch of his glass as she let him go, leaving him scrambling to a stiffened sit-up.
"You HAD your loving family to lose, that only Fates themselves broke apart. Me, all it took was one stupid choice, from selfish pride, to lose my only FRIENDS in this fucking world!"
Spurred on by her sermon, she lifted the rest of her glass and swigged it down in a blink. Lifted Mayfield's mix too; disappeared in seconds before she wiped her lips, staring back rigged to explode.
"No matter where I walked or what I did, the world never let me forget. Every single day, I'd be reminded on how the only creatures on Earth to love me for me were sent to their doom by my own obsessions."
Mayfield made to stand up, but had his heart in his throat when she hurled both glasses over his head, having them shatter against the wall into miniature crystals.
"SIT YOUR ASS DOWN! So after a year full of fresh memories, you come along desperate for work. In my mind, before your little surprise gift, it seemed like you just compounded my worst mistake of all, as you found and kept using my secret. How else did you expect me to react?"
Mayfield clasped palms over his head, lips in a wide pucker as she blazed onward.
"Deep inside, I had thought 'How dare you take my friends from me' as you grew obsessed with those powers. Fry especially, who I've harboured actual love for ever since I coin-flipped him. Even envisioned him being a husband and a father. Instead, I've less than nothing to show for going that extra mile…"
She herself began to shuffle for the balcony, quietly followed by Mayfield whose face began to go pale. Rarely knew a stronger woman than her, but if he had broken those limits…