Disclaimer: Taralei, Tam, Petro and the pink-haired girl are of my own creation, however the Legion of Superheroes and anything related to it are not.
Chapter Two - A Day Out With Tam
"Hey, funny green kid. Funny green kid. Funny greed kid, whose real name escapes me, wake up!"
Said green kid awoke with a start and rolled straight out of bed, landing flat on his face at Tam's feet. After a few moments, he slowly raised his head and glared at Tam.
"What are you doing in my room?"
"Good morning to you too, funny green kid!" Tam replied cheerfully, as he pulled the other boy to his feet and shoved him towards his still-destroyed bathroom.
"My name is Querl, and your sarcasm is not appreciated this early in the morning. What time is it anyway?"
"6am."
"6am."
"Yes."
"6am! What are you doing in my house, waking me up at 6am!
"Well obviously, I wanted to spend the day with my new best friend. Now get in that shower, you smell like burned vegetables." Tam replied, shoving the smaller boy towards the bathroom once more.
Querl sighed and entered the bathroom, being careful not to step on any sharp sink remnants, all the while grumbling something about vows not meaning anything anymore. Tam simply shrugged as he wandered into Querl's room and began digging through his personal belongings.
An hour and a half later found Tam, Querl and Tam's pet plant Frenzy, at the local mall. Tam had dragged Querl to the arcade and was currently playing Zombie Mud while Querl lectured him on personal space. Apparently Tam found it difficult to understand that people generally don't like other people they've known for less than a day looking through their sock drawers.
"…it's disrespectful, rude, an invasion of privacy- are you even listening to me?"
"Die undead scum, die!"
"I suppose not."
Querl wandered around the arcade, trying to find something interesting to look at, while he pretended he didn't know Tam. It was a pretty small, square building with really old games from hundreds of years ago taking up one wall and newer virtual reality games like the one Tam was playing (and yelling at) taking up another. The front wall was entirely made of glass so people could see into the arcade and had a few pot plants near the door. The back wall had a door that Querl assumed led to a storage room, as well as a large counter where a blue-skinned woman was selling drinks to a few customers.
One particular customer caught Querl's eye. She was tiny, at least a head shorter than himself (and he was quite short), with bright pink hair pulled into pigtails. She wore a brown trench coat that was far too big for her and was talking to the blue-skinned woman in quick whispers. When she noticed Querl staring, she glared at him and stalked out of the arcade. Querl blinked and returned to where Tam was still playing his zombie game.
"I'm listening; I'm just trying to save the world from Zombie Mud at the same time." Tam said, eyes never leaving the screen.
Querl gave Tam an odd look, "I asked you that ten minutes ag- never mind." He sighed, "What exactly is Zombie Mud?"
"Duh, it's Zombie Mud."
Querl glanced down at Tam's 2ft walking flower, Frenzy to see if it had any clue what exactly was wrong with its owner, only to find it growling. Since when did plants growl? He turned around to see what it was growling at and came face to face with a very big and very angry arcade owner. Where on earth had he come from?
Querl poked Tam in the shoulder, "Uh, Tam?"
"Kinda busy! Hah! Your pathetic attempts do not faze me, I will be victorious! Ahahahaha!"
Querl forced a smile at the angry man next to him as Frenzy hid behind his legs. It seemed the plant was smarter than its owner.
"Uh, can I help you?"
"Yeah, you and your green-headed punk of a friend need to leave. Now."
"Why?" Tam asked distractedly.
The man grew even angrier if it was possible and gestured wildly at a nearby pinball machine, well what was left of it anyway. It had been smashed to pieces by something that appeared to be a large tree root. Querl stared in shock at the pinball machine; it had been fine less than two minutes ago.
It was then that Tam finished his game and turned around to see what all the commotion was about.
"Oops."
"I cannot believe you got us forcibly removed from the arcade." Querl said as he and Tam waited in line at a hot dog stand, "How did you manage to destroy that pinball machine anyway!"
"I dunno, just seems to happen to me sometimes." Tam replied shrugging. "Why do you care anyway? I thought you didn't like the arcade. More sauce please."
The hot dog seller glanced quizzically at Querl, who simply shook his head, before adding more sauce to Tam's hotdog. It was literally drowning in sauce now. Tam grinned at both Querl and the hot dog man's blank faces and took a big bite out of his hot dog, smearing sauce all over his face.
"That is not the point! I have never been thrown out of anywhere like that in my life!" Querl replied to Tam's earlier comment as he and Tam paid for their hot dogs and walked away.
"Wow, you're so boring." Tam commented as he searched for somewhere to sit down. "You must have lived a very boring life before moving here."
"I did not!" Querl argued, staring at the ground. "I had an amazing life!"
"Seriously?" Tam asked, as he hauled the spaced out Querl over to an empty table. "What happened?"
"Me…" Querl mumbled to himself, but Tam still heard.
The Florian wasn't sure how to respond to that and in the end he didn't have to; a laser fired straight over their heads, distracting them. Querl reacted quickly, pulling Tam to the ground as another shot blasted the table they had been sitting at.
Both boys climbed to their feet, looking around for the source of the shots. By now all the people at the mall were panicking and running around madly, Tam could barely see anything.
"There," Querl yelled over the noise, "The man in black near the teleporter. He has a level 2 laser; usually carried by common thieves. I'll go stop him, you get yourself to safety!"
Querl vaulted over the destroyed table they had been sitting at and swerved his way through the terrified crowd towards the man he'd pointed out. Tam frowned; if Querl thought he was going to wander off into trouble all by himself, he was very, very wrong.
Querl rolled and ducked behind a table as a shot fired right where he'd been standing. He grabbed a chair and blocked another shot with it, before tossing it to the side and hurling himself behind a pillar to avoid yet another shot.
'I cannot keep this up,' Querl thought as he ducked a particularly well aimed shot; it missed his head by an inch. 'I need a weapon or something to fight back with.'
He rolled away once again and glanced up to find he was hiding in a sporting shop. "Perfect."
He reached up and pulled a few baseballs down from the shelf above him and a cricket bat from a box to his left, before crawling out of the shop and back behind the pillar from earlier. He stuck his head out to find the thug that had been shooting at him. The man saw him and began firing once more. Querl quickly reached around the other side of the pillar and threw one of the baseballs with all his might. It hit the man in the elbow, causing the gun to fly out of his hand.
The man yelled something Querl couldn't quite make out and bent down to pick up his laser. Querl pegged another baseball at him, this one hitting the man in the head and knocking him unconscious, just as a shot from behind flew right over Querl's head. Hearing another yell, Querl turned to see where the shot had come from, only to find another man dressed in all black tied up with big green tree roots. He was yelling angrily at a grinning, green-haired boy not to far from him.
"I thought I told you to leave." Querl said, coming out from behind his pillar.
"Running away is for pansies." Tam replied, still grinning.
Querl walked over to his friend, looking around at the now deserted mall. He smiled, "Then by your definition, half of the inhabitants of New Metropolis are 'pansies'."
"I know! Did you see them all running? There were so many people; it took me like ten minutes to find you…"
The two friends were headed towards the exit, Tam running ahead and still rambling on excitedly, when Querl saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped for a second to get a better look when the shot fired. Throwing himself to the ground, he realized too late that the person wasn't aiming at him.
"Tam!"
I deleted the old chapter two as I felt it was unecessary and slowed the story down too much. I've posted a large chunk of it in my Deleted Scenes story for anyone interested.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one should be up soon.
~Saani