Rebound

Chapter V

We'd met here before, it wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing location but it was safe – relatively unknown and inaccessible to those not extremely determined to get to it. The structure served as a paid parking facility for the surrounding shopping district, but when a large, free lot opened just down the street years later, the building's upper levels sat empty most nights. When the ramp to the sixth and final floor partially collapsed and fell into disrepair from water damage, the city was in no hurry to repair the underused facility when so many other construction projects were in need of more immediate attention. I was about to approach Lisa, who was just across the lot from my position at the top of a maintenance staircase. There she was, somehow wedged into a cross-legged position on an overturned milk crate, smoke in one hand and flip-phone in the other, hunched over the screen (most likely playing Tetris) humming absently to herself. I decided then to hold back a minute and watch her, though it wasn't something I was particularly proud of. Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't think twice about Lisa's physical attributes like this, I swear. She was one of the only humans I'd ever met where her lively personality took priority over her image in my memory, and that's saying a lot. The last thing I wanted to make the same mistakes with Lisa that I did with April when I was younger; holding onto an unhealthy attraction while manipulating information in my head to convince myself she wanted the same things I did. I knew all too well the type of strain it could put on our relationship if I let myself get carried away again. Because of this, I usually distanced myself from any kind of physical observation of Lisa... On more than one occasion this might have made me seem a little cold, but I wasn't about to let innocent things like noticing a new haircut or clothes lead my mind down a imaginative path. With someone like Lisa, who would tie stories about her nights out, places she'd been to and things she'd experimented with into everyday conversation it wouldn't have been a difficult thing to do.

Nonetheless, I told myself I was only curious because she'd been gone for so long. Her face was more or less the same, she almost never wore makeup so I imagined the dark circles under her eyes were the result of exhaustion. Considering how she'd spent the summer she was in better condition than I thought she'd come home in, actually. When she announced back in May in her perky, guess-what-I'm-doing voice that she was going out west to some reforestation camp her cousin worked at, I thought she was telling me some poorly executed joke. The girl was a waif, she hadn't had any real exercise since high school gym class and up until that point she'd never mentioned even a fleeting interest in anything outdoors-y to me. Then, like a mind reader, she explained she was actually in it for the money (you supposedly got paid on a per-tree-planted basis) and "insane field parties" after the shifts her cousin had bragged about. Deep down I think she just wanted to get away from the city, her brother and being dependant on her steady but meager Vision revenue for awhile. She was looking forward to a change of scenery, even if it meant sleeping on the ground and waking up to hard labour every morning. Aside from some new additions to collection of hemp and pony bead bracelets that went up her wrists, she looked almost exactly the same and I couldn't decide if I felt disappointed or relieved because of it. I'm not sure what kind of change I was expecting, really, but seeing her as she was then was the reassuring familiarity I'd been waiting for. This was enough, I was wasting our time just standing there in the stairwell gawking at her, it was time to get the evening underway.

"So, did those 'insane' field parties live up to your expectations after all?" I called out with a grin as I made my way across the lot to where Lisa was sitting. I almost got to her. Instead of shooting me a death glare, she turned her attention to her purse which she began dumping the contents of on the parking lot floor without a second thought.

"I was going to bring you a souvenir you know, I don't think the pictures from my shitty camera phone did them any justice." She replied, glancing over her shoulder at me for a second before turning back the search for her lighter. I sat down on a second crate beside her and watched quietly as she picked through each item on the ground. I never understood how Lisa could manage to fit so much into that tiny bag, or why she bothered to haul so much junk around in the first place. She'd already dumped out a pile of receipts, some tic-tacs, a set of keys, her Ms. Pacman cigarette case, a gel pen, a roll of pennies, chapstick, a blowpop, a bottle of Tylenol, a dice, half a roll of Lifesavers, an empty dime bag and a bottle of nail polish on the pavement and there was still more to go through.

"I have a feeling anything you would've brought back could get us both incarcerated." I eventually countered absently, I was paying more attention to the pile of all things Lisa that was accumulating in front of us than the direction of our usual banter. What kind of girl carries around a roll of Elastoplast and tensor clips? By now she'd finally retrieved her lighter and set is aside with Ms. Pacman on the ground between us, then began shoving the rest of her treasures back in her purse carelessly.

"I've been back five minutes and we're already making snide drug remarks, Don?" She asked, pulling out a styrofoam container marked 'W/O TATZIKI' from a plastic takeout bag and handing it to me before opening up her own. "And besides, you know I'm not into anything unnatural."

"I wasn't being snide," I interjected, "I just think your definition of what's natural is a generous one, that's all." I didn't want to debate this again, so I began eating without another word and waited for Lisa to change the subject. We fell into a silence for awhile, but it was a comfortable one. Lisa finished her meal first, and began folding her napkin into a fan in silence until I made a point to show I was done as well. When I'd collected all my garbage and put it in one of the bags, Lisa quietly cleared her throat and took a deep breath. What came next surprised me.

"So anyway, has Eddie been into anything he shouldn't have while I've been gone?" She asked without looking up from her half-hearted napkin origami. I was taken aback, I thought we would've had to skirt around the issue for another half hour before getting anywhere with it. Without asking, I reached for Ms. Pacman before speaking, and Lisa passed me her lighter instinctively. I stole a quick glimpse of her face while lighting up and my heart sank while my head rushed, then looked at the ground and collected my thoughts.

"When it comes to Edison..." The words I was looking for had escaped me. I had to be so careful when it came to reporting anything tabout him to Lisa, not only to protect myself but also to ensure I still had her trust. Our relationship went both ways, I needed her information as much as she needed mine. Lisa was unquestionably protective of her brother, and often had a hard time accepting that he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty or even above using Vision as a catalyst for profiteering when the mood struck him. If I overwhelmed Lisa she wouldn't want to speak to me, and there was just no reasoning with her when she'd heard too much. She'd just get upset and disappear, leading to a series of panic attacks on my end until she got over it and decided we were cool again. "I guess to put it in simplest terms, there was one incident... a fairly recent incident. Your brother was hardly involved but he got close to us. Too close, though thankfully he was chasing something else at the time."

"Okay, but..." She knew this game, she had to ask me the right questions if she was going to get any clarity out of the situation because I couldn't go into too much detail when my brothers were involved. "This has happened before, right? I don't understand what's so different about this time if he didn't see you."

"It's a small miracle he didn't, we had our hands full at the time and I had no idea he was even there until, well, the next morning." This detail got her attention, I paused for a moment before continuing. The incident in question was our face off with the Sasquatch monster and Karai's ninja just after Leo's homecoming. "So, uh, yeah. Eddie sold the footage he captured to channel 6, his name wasn't revealed but I recognize his camerawork anywhere. There was a commotion over it on Vision as well, no one's sure just how much he made from the deal but some of them weren't happy. There were comments that he only got away with it because you were out of the picture, questions were even raised about Vision's integrity."

Lisa was fuming, and really, she had every right. Edison had drilled into Vision's members on so many occasions that their information was too valuable to be commodified, and that to be a member one had to be above selling out. They were sworn to a sort of secrecy that wasn't supposed to be broken whenever it was convenient or money was short. "That son of a bitch!" She exclaimed, standing up and digging her phone back out of her purse. "What was he thinking? Ohmigod Donnie, I'm so sorry, I could just kill him."

"Hey, it's okay. You couldn't do anything about it and- You're not calling him now are you?" I asked uneasily. Lisa didn't answer, but turned her back to me with her phone to her ear and began walking a circle around our milk crate dining set up.

"Hey...Where are you? Yeah. Yeah. Are you staying there?...What the hell? Thanks for telling me, I'm like across town right now. You're paying me back for the taxi. Fine. I know, I will. Bye." Lisa snapped her phone shut and let out a frustrated sigh and turned back towards me. "So that was Eddie, he's staying at a friend's house tonight and claims he was going to call eventually. Dad's still on business so I gotta get home and let the dog out. Normally Arjay could do it, but he's out with my car, right? I'm really sorry, but I have to cut our night short." She looked completely guilty and I felt for her. I was also fretting over what I was going to do I was planning on getting home after everyone else had gone to bed and that was before I'd wound up in the mess I was in now with Leo and April.

"Well, at least you can make the best of a bad situation. With your brother out of the picture you can always do a little investigation, find out what you've missed over the summer." I offered, though my tone probably gave away that I was disappointed about our meeting being cut short as well. It was never easy planning these things, and after tonight I had a feeling this would only become more difficult.

"You know what? Screw this, you should just come with me! There'll be no one around, I can put Blue in the bathroom if he wants to bite your face off!" This filled me with so much confidence, believe me. I was hesitant, I'd seen Lisa's house before, a turn of the century duplex which her family split with Arjay's. Sure it had more cover than an apartment building, but I'd never been inside before and usually avoided buildings I didn't know the floorplans of very well. At the same time, there was a chance I could be grounded indefinitely when I got home that night, so I figured then was the time to take the risk and tag along.

"Fine, we'll go now," I decided "but I have three rules: all doors unlocked, all windows open and all blinds and curtains drawn before I'm inside. Oh, and a fourth rule, I'm not going anywhere near Edison's room." I needed to make sure I had an exit wherever I was in the house, I wasn't going to find myself trapped in a closet or bathroom if someone came home unexpectedly. Lisa was beaming and went in for another hug, she was warmer now than before.

"This is so great, I'll take a cab and meet you there. I'll be faster for both of us that way, you can use the rooftops." This was true, it was only a far distance to Lisa's on foot if you were using the sidewalks. I could make it there in less than twenty minutes my own way. Before we knew it we were going our separate ways again, I had no idea what was in store at Lisa's but deep down I knew I was looking forward to going. She would never be able to see my home, so I felt it was a kind of rare privilege to get to see hers. I knew that as long as kept track of time and didn't let my guard down I'd be able to take care of myself, I was a ninja making a house call after all.

Thanks for your patience, I swear I hadn't forgotten about this story. The tl;dr version of the major delay of this chapter is that back in July I got a puppy, and his training and upbringing hasve been eating up most of my free time. I'm looking forward to getting back into fanfiction and might even start some new projects alongside this one. Again, I love the feedback Rebound has been getting so far and look forward to reading what you thought. And no, I haven't forgotten about April or the boys back at the lair, the next installments will be looking into what they've been doing all this time. - Dee