Chapter 35: Pre-Party (1/2)
Ryan loved Genome parties. They always involved a lot of property damage.
He had attended a few elsewhere in Italy, usually when he joined a group. However, this one looked like it would be the biggest yet; and since tomorrow would mark Quicksave’s first week in New Rome, the courier intended to cap it off with a bang.
Well, he had probably spent two months or so in the city across various loops, but still! This party might be something entirely new and surprising.
“How many people will come?” Ryan asked, having traded his usual trench coat, hat, and mask for a classy, dark purple suit. While Ki-jung had insisted he could dress casually, the Genome would settle for nothing less than the best outfit in the room.
You couldn’t half-ass elegance.
“Oh, no more than one-hundred,” Ki-jung replied, her fingers fidgeting in anxiety. She had traded her glasses for contact lenses, and her modest clothes for a sleeveless black dress. Her boyfriend meanwhile wore a simple blue shirt and black pants.
“Do you want more tuna pizzas?” Lanka asked while on the sofa while typing on a phone. That tasteless black sheep alone hadn’t made any effort to dress well. “We still got enough party funds for four more.”
“Add a few vegan ones for Fortuna,” Ki-jung said, before checking the kitchen for the fifth time in the past hour. Jamie had gathered an impressive array of alcohol bottles on the counter. “Will that be enough?”
“They’re the strongest liquors I could find,” Jamie replied, intending to work as the barman and already busy making cocktails. Since Genomes had a more efficient metabolism than normal humans, they needed ten times the usual dose to even feel the effects of alcohol.
“I’ve got Genome-only stuff in my car,” Ryan said. “But you will start shining in the dark and see invisible things.”
“Don’t worry,” Jamie said quickly. “Fortuna is bringing strong stuff, and, I quote, ‘party pills.’”
“No Bliss?” Ki-jung asked, her face tensing up.
“No Bliss,” her boyfriend reassured her, while someone hit the doorbell. “Come in!”
The first guests opened the door, Ki-jung anxiously standing straight next to Ryan while they walked inside. Night had fallen outside, and while the party was scheduled to start at eight, most guests would be fashionably late.
“Hello everyone!” Fortuna entered the house, followed by her boyfriend and a younger girl around fifteen. Lucky Lady wore a golden dress even more scandalously lavish than usual; whereas the teenage girl dressed so tastelessly, that Ryan couldn’t look at her without fighting the urge to drag her to a tailor’s shop.
Fortuna’s date was around Ryan’s physical age, with short well-groomed brown hair, blue eyes, and an elegant all black formal suit. He looked rather plain when compared to his girlfriend, but the courier felt an intense vibe coming from him.
In fact, he seemed vaguely familiar.
The mystery boy immediately singled out the courier, who waved a hand at him. “Hi, I’m Ryan. I would say I’m immortal, but you probably know that already.”
“Mathias,” the man replied, shaking Ryan’s hand with a small smile. “Mathias Martel.”
The way he moved, his aura, the slight inflection in the voice… “I know, we’ve met,” Ryan replied cheerfully, testing the waters.
“You did?” Fortuna asked while Mathias’ smile strained a bit. Since he hadn’t cut that lucky woman’s hair this time around, she seemed a lot more well-disposed towards Ryan. “Matt, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Yeah, you’re usually a very transparent kind of guy, Matt.” Ryan winked at him. “I hope you don’t hide anything else.”
Matt’s poker face remained ironclad while he answered his date’s question. “It didn’t seem important at the time.”
“Fortuna, you brought your sister?” Ki-jung asked the blonde bombshell, although her eyes remained focused on the teenage girl. “Isn’t she too young for this kind of party?”
“I’m almost fifteen!” The younger girl pouted. While she was no top model like her sister, she would probably grow into an attractive woman in time. She had short, light brown hair, ocean blue eyes, and a heart-shaped face.
“Fourteen and a half,” Fortuna teased her, her younger sister pinching her in the arm.
“Hi, I’m Narcinia, Narcinia Veran.” The teen smiled brightly at everyone. “Alias Ceres.”
“I still can’t believe Augustus gave you an Olympian name before me,” Fortuna complained, her boyfriend glancing away. “If only Felix hadn’t gone crazy, we could have become Diana and Apollo.”
“Has he answered your messages?” Ki-jung asked, a look of concern on her face.
“I wish!” Fortuna complained, crossing her arms angrily. “I swear when he comes back—”
“If he comes back,” Narcinia replied with a depressed face.
“Maybe he got hit by a car,” Ryan said, the others glaring at him. “Well, he is a cat. Or was that too soon?”
“He will come back,” Fortuna insisted, though she looked at Jamie and Ki-jung. “Can’t you help? Give him a call?”
The couple exchanged an embarrassed glance, one heavy with regrets. “He didn’t leave the house on the best terms,” Jamie said stoically. “Felix… Felix needs time to figure himself out.”
“But—”
Mathias put a hand on his girlfriend’s arm before she could insist. He seemed more insightful than her, though that wasn’t hard.
Having talked with Atom Cat on the Dynamis path, Ryan quickly put two and two together. He had a pretty good idea of what caused his feline friend to leave the Augusti, namely, Ki-jung's situation.
Something else also bothered Ryan. Felix the Cat said his sister Narcinia was adopted, and she matched a certain description… Could it be?
This party already promised a lot of surprises.
“Luigi isn’t here?” Fortuna asked as she scanned the room. “He’s usually early when there are girls.”
“No, the Hockey Killer attacked him again when his bodyguard took a bathroom break,” Jamie replied with a frown. “The attacker also forced Luigi to eat a salami.”
“Hockey Killer?” Ryan asked at the same time a shocked Fortuna said, “A salami?”
“That’s probably the same maniac who attacked Luigi before,” Jamie replied with a sigh. “And yes, a salami. Don’t ask me why. They say the city is safer with the Meta gone, but if you ask me, it has enough madmen already.”
“It could be a vigilante,” Ryan said. “Some handsome fellow possessing a strange sense of justice, fighting crime with a hockey stick in one hand and a sausage in the other.”
“Why has he only attacked Luigi then?” Lanka pointed out from the sofa, too lazy to leave her spot. “Nah, blabbermouth, it’s just petty revenge. If you ask me, the jackass deserved it, always asking the wrong questions.”
“Whatever the case, this Hockey Killer will get what he deserves,” Jamie said firmly, glancing at Fortuna. “Now that the Meta-Gang has left New Rome, will you look into it?”
“Vulcan hasn’t released us yet,” Fortuna complained. “Though we cleaned up Rust Town and Sparrow chased those Psychos off to the ends of the Earth.”
Well, Ryan wouldn’t say they had cleaned up Rust Town. They had prevented a large fire, but the Junkyard had transformed into a pile of molten trash conveniently hiding the bunker’s entrance. Vulcan had tasked the group to patrol the area in case the Meta returned, while she left with Sparrow to hunt them down. Ryan hadn’t received any news since, though he heard both women would attend the party.
Truthfully, the time-traveler hadn’t yet figured out what to do about Mechron’s bunker, and Len hadn’t contacted him again either. He hoped the party would help him destress and clear his mind.
“Should we discuss this while…” Ki-jung cleared her throat while looking at Mathias. “I’m sorry, but…”
“Don’t worry, he has seen right through us,” Ryan said with a smirk, delighting at making Martel more and more uncomfortable.
“Yeah, I’m sure one of you is the Hockey Killer,” the man replied with the same mirthful face. “I hope I didn’t blow your cover.”
Everyone took it as a joke and laughed, none louder than Ryan himself. Touché. “It’s okay, Chitter, I vouch for my Mathias,” Fortuna said, putting her head on her man’s shoulder. “He’s the one.”
“I only agreed to a second date,” Mathias replied with a stoic expression.
“It’s going to happen whether you like it or not.”
“How did the two of you meet?” Ki-jung asked.
“You know that time when my third apartment had a gas leak last week?” Fortuna asked. “I narrowly avoided death by falling off the window, and Mathias rescued me.”
“No, your power rescued you,” Mathias corrected her with a deadpan face. “I didn’t expect you to fall on me from the third floor. That was completely unexpected.”
“It was love at first sight,” Fortuna declared.
“It wasn’t,” her boyfriend protested. “I checked if you were alright, and when I tried to leave because I had other stuff planned, you started shouting at me.”
“Well, of course I was furious,” Fortuna protested, while the others chuckled. “The world’s most beautiful woman falls on your lap and asks you to spoil her because she’s distressed, and you dare refuse?”
“Yes,” Mathias replied bluntly. Clearly, he was immune to Fortuna’s charm and she couldn’t stand it. “What, my world should have stopped for you?”
“Yes, it should have!” And she said it without any hint of sarcasm whatsoever. “When I look at boys, they drop at my feet, but you, Matt? You walked away!”
“When does the music start?” Narcinia finally spoke up. She seemed a bit shy in the presence of so many older people, but grew more confident as the group exchanged pleasantries. “It’s too silent.”
Jamie glanced at Ryan, who showed them the DJ: a brain in a jar hooked to the TV and loudspeakers, surrounded by Ki-jung’s rats.
“You use a Genius-made cyber-brain as a DJ?” Narcinia asked, though unlike the others she seemed more excited than bothered. “So cool.”
“I shouldn’t have asked you to take care of the playlist,” Ki-jung told Ryan with a regretful sigh.
“Remorse is for those who don’t know what they want!” Ryan replied, activating DJ Brain. “Now watch.”
The brain started playing music, and as it did, a light shone from inside its tank. As the liquid protecting the grey matter changed color, creating a nightclub ambiance with the appropriate music.
“Catchy,” Lanka admitted, nodding to herself to the tune of the music.
“I don’t recognize the artist,” Ki-jung said, while her rats started breakdancing around the TV.
“It’s a Grand Theft Auto remix,” Mathias said, much to Ryan’s surprise. “A pretty good one too.”
“Mathias is a game designer,” Fortuna said since he was clearly too modest to boast for himself. “He’s super talented.”
“To be precise, I’m a programmer and I make indie games on the side,” her date replied with a sheepish grin, the most emotion Ryan had seen him emote so far. “Mostly RPGs and Metroidvanias.”
Nobody understood the jargon, except Ryan, who had stars in his eyes. However, he decided to test that man’s knowledge first, before getting his hopes up. “Have you played Metroid Fusion?”
“Yes, but I prefer Super Metroid,” Mathias replied. “More open-ended.”
“Best Square RPG?”