Katherine

February 2nd, 2024 – Friday

Everyone had left just after 9:46pm that Friday when the goal was to go inform the CSPD, Chimera, and Alpha Prime about the Denim Rats dealing a drug with an alien xenome in its make up. Primarily this would be done through Black Phantom’s contact in the CSPD. Garrick found himself standing, alone, on the first floor and checks in on the Shorties below. All eight are absorbed in the Worlds Online servers he co-administers with Horace once more. They look like they are very happy right now and he’s worried about splitting them up. He programs a ‘message’ to go out one time on Sunday in case he wants to change it but also so he won’t forget to tell them.

Soon he finds himself standing in front of Patsy’s door, arm raised, wishing to knock.

… If Katherine made a mess of things why would she want to talk to you …

… In his sister’s voice, “Father was already a genius hero, but no, you had to be like him and you cheated with a magic, talking sword!” …

Garrick puts his arm down, after all, he couldn’t even convince the group to get out of its analysis and go do hero stuff. Did he really deserve to call himself Patsy’s protector? He’d failed to find a way for her to meet Jake, and he remembered how crestfallen Ethel had been when he had no news for her. No wonder even Katherine picked Nathaniel over getting involved with a fuck up like him.

Garrick snapped his head back and forth a few times quietly saying, “One hour, one day, one week, one month, one year.” Walking back toward the kitchen island he resolved to tell Patsy about her month anniversary cupcake. He had wanted it to make her feel welcomed somewhere when she couldn’t be home. Feeling the anxiety from watching the ‘video’ gnawing at him. He knew that not getting to the bottom of that argument they had would eventually eat him alive. So he sent her a two-part text with a picture of the cupcake. He moved it slightly and set her envelope with the monthly stipend tucked within next to the cupcake.

He also knew he needed to be delicate about going about asking questions. Maybe the reason there was no fight was that they realized “it” was a misunderstanding. It could already be nothing and resolved with him worrying for naught. Closing the futuristic door of the fridge with a very similar “whoosh” sound to his bedroom doors. He faced the black chrome panel, staring at his muted reflection. He wondered when did he become a William Faulkner quote?”

Garrick remembered a quote of his forebear on a website about poetry and literature: “The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.” Looking at his phone it was 9:58pm so he decided to send another text to Katherine this time. A whisper in the back of his head caught him off guard and his silver and gold wristband (where the wings and lion rear legs of the Gryphon wrapped around his left arm so that transformation or chopping his arm off was the only way to remove it) felt tighter in a protective grip, “Relax your mind.”

“I am trying but I’m worried about two people I care about.”

“How another chooses to feel about another soul is not for you to decide. Yet you burden yourself with decisions that are not yours to make.”

“I was hoping they would be friends.”

“I can tell you from experience friends can fight more than strangers.”

10:01pm

Garrick felt the pressure on his left forearm ease gently as his Crystal Pearphone X lit up with Patsy’s reply. He became concerned because it could be interpreted as a suicide goodbye. He tried to get her to clarify with another text to her. Just as he hit send a set of rapid fire replies came in to his phone that same minute from Katherine. Clearly she was on her way back but now Garrick was confused. He’d noted her use of emojis and his eyebrow raised, “Maybe Nathaniel and her have an open relationship? I hear polyamorous groupings, triangles, quads, are a lot more common these days then when I was a teen. Perhaps that’s how super heroes deal with loss by having more than one partner?”

Patsy’s reply came in and yet the tone sounded different and very confident in his head when he read it. Still it sounded like she had found a clue and was hot on a trail of something or someone. He had been making sure she had the freedom to come and go as she saw fit, now that idea was being tested and he just hoped letting her pursue her agenda as an adult was the right choice. He sent a reply to Kat that he was on the second floor.

Hmmm, lots to consider, “Optimus, please verify, is Patsy home?”

“No Garrick, she is not.”

“Optimus, take the steps necessary and open Patsy’s door.”

“Yes Garrick, it is done.”

“Optimus, the second Katherine uses her key card follow your settings on my alert and lock Patsy’s door.”

“Yes Garrick, it will be as requested.”

Resolving to touch nothing, hoping to just see that nothing screamed an interest in suicide. Garrick strode into the room and began to use his phone to record and snapshot various things. On one wall was a HUGE map of Century Station! Upon it she’d drawn in highlighter two or three lines on the map. One line running horizontal across the city that looks like it bends but Garrick sees it actually is two lines that overlap each other at the bend. That location he recognizes as the Zericho Wax Museum. The third line is short and runs North-South in Society Hill. It intersects the horizontal line in Century Park.

She has notes and articles on criminals being defeated around town, all tied to a Maverick noted as dressed in ancient clothing and using a pole arm type weapon. Whoever this person is, it looked like she was trying to track and map out where he operated from. Garrick wondered if she has finally found the maverick known as the Wayfarer.

The third group on her “Wall of Weird” was notes on many of the gangs that operated around the Zericho museum. Most of them are X‘d out or say things like “No luck” “Nothing” “Not the ones”. One of them is a gang called “The Abandoned.” Their name is circled with “Jackpot!” written in her handwriting on it. Threads go from that note to various spots around the area. There are pictures of auction receipts and shipping notices for two items in a series which includes articles about the robbery Garrick was arrested for. There’s a spot before that where a couple pictures would be, but they are missing currently. Insurance receipts show that both items were claimed lost and paid off by an insurance company. She has notes about the two items, one says “His” and the other has threads going to the Zericho museum, which has its own threads with the gangs and The Abandoned. Numerous locations in Zericho and neighboring areas are marked and X‘d. There are a lot of pictures: of gang members, pawn shops, the Zericho Wax Museum, Garrick quickly recognizes the hiding spots he put the boxes in among them.

The final grouping he had time to look at was lots of shots of the Grand Lady and her Handmaidens. The whole area is photographed well and looks, in her pictures, to almost be a majestic, magical place. As he attempted to read about a recent newspaper articles of another Maverick…
…Garrick gets the text notification that Katherine has entered the house. He hears the door click and he lifts off the ground by a few inches and flies out shutting the door as he goes. He lands at the island wearing the same new jeans but a faded dark blue grey tank top with a mythical gryphon upon it. He’s barefoot but the radiant floor heating is on to make it feel 78 degrees. Katherine is still dressed in the clothes she had on when she left, however, he noticed some buttons/zippers are a little more revealing than earlier. Garrick began to stare and a ‘gulp’ escaped his lips as he realized instantly that look in her eyes was not a “hey buddy nice to see you” look. It was the same look a fat kid gives cake they’re about to eat and he was dessert in this case!

 
Garrick had a flashback to an Animal Planet episode when he was 14 watching a tiger stalk its prey. Only this tiger was lithely striding across the floor toward him. Nearly stammering he got out, “Um, what is Nathaniel going to say? Um, I thought you two were seeing each other?”

 
“You said we were friends and you’re always staring at each other,” he gulps “I thought you both may have well, you know, hooked up?”

She smiled and winked as he heard the last sentence in his head! His mental activity was off the chart for him! Katherine could see his thoughts of her in his sketchbook. Even more thoughts of trying to commit her current pose to memory so he could draw her again. Cold sweat running down his back when he tried to form the words to ask her to pose for him. While his face, neck, and shoulders flushed bright red, “Oh I get it, sorry my bad!”

As she placed a hand on each of his knees scratching slightly through the jeans material she picked up on two easy to read signs with or without psychic powers, arousal and terror. In her whole life Katherine had never seen a man act like this. His heart and head were at war with each other. To an observer this scene was almost comical. Katherine was 5 feet 6 inches tall and Garrick was a full foot taller than her in this form! She watched him breathe slowly and begin to speak, “Trust me it’s not that I am not interested,” it very apparent to her glancing at the curve in his jeans below the waist where his interest was at, “but to be honest I have never been with a woman. You’re also the first kiss I ever had with a woman, so I umm… I am not very good at this kind of stuff.”

As Garrick looked into her eyes his heart began to pull out of panic mode, something about her was easy to trust and her smile wasn’t so erotically wicked but charming and beautiful. Her hands went to the outside of his torso, up over his chest and stopped at cupping his face. She leaned in to kiss him once again and Garrick slowly wrapped his arms around her content to die in that moment. After an indeterminate amount of time she pulled back lightly biting his bottom lip. In that time Garrick made three attempts to pull her shirt up and undo her bra. She had managed to slide his tank top off of him and discard it on the kitchen island. He finally sighed admitting defeat to her undergarments, “Your going to have to be gentle, what, umm… I’ve seen porn but these chairs and the kitchen island really don’t look comfortable.”

She smiled at how awkward his expression was his thoughts belied a fear of waking up in his bed and this moment becoming a dream. They kissed some more and held each other in gentle caresses until she mentioned that to avoid Shorty’s getting an eyeful his bedroom might be a more appropriate venue. Garrick’s mind railed for him to seize this one moment to be cool and romantic! He carefully picks her up in his arms and glides through the air to the bedroom. As he pulls his legs up he lands on his enormous 12 and a half by 15 foot bed he smirks, “I guess it’s time for my education to begin?”

Time Passes…

Laying in his bed snuggling they share their complete life stories with each other. She learns about his growing up to the genius of Cuthbert Griffin Faulkner, his mother Cynthia, and the vengeance of his sister Adeline. He leaves his hero form in that wash of seemingly divine light and a wave of glowing golden mercurial substance to show the burns and scars from every time she tried to kill him.

 
Smiles and kisses her again and then, “Well strap in then ain’t nothing boring with me.” He laughs with her and after a bit of snuggles he says, “Grant unto me the might of the Gryphon.” Once more what seems like the light of heaven changes him as the golden mercurial substance leaves him the perfect physical specimen of 6 foot 6 inches and 240 pounds. The last thing he mentions about Adeline looking off into the dim blue light barely illuminating his room, “It is easier to be hated, because there are no lies in anger or rage. Not even pretty white ones we tell ourselves.”

Katherine just shrugs. She doesn’t know what to say to that and just listens while cuddling.

He apologizes when he mentions all the other scars he never talked about – and DOESN’T transform for – because they were the ones from Gramercy. He mentions that he was beaten by guards, questioned by various officials about the robbery he committed and he suspects it was about the two boxes he made off with. One had this sword in it and he’s never seen the other one since he got out. From the Tuesday surveillance he knows she met Patsy and she had a picture of it on a stand in her book. She’s gone and won’t be home for a day or two because she’s tracking this Wayfarer maverick.

“Well, had Alex not seen you in the shadows when you told me you were sick I would never have even looked and at 7am the next day it would have deleted. Before you get upset at him you didn’t stop to think before I delete the footage I might watch it. I never promised anyone I wouldn’t review the footage just ensure its deletion.”

He switches topics back to Gramercy and rather clinically mentions his first sexual experience was in prison. Until tonight its all he has ever known other than watching porn to see how it could be done nicely. Although he jokes that he’d be a horrible masseuse because about 5 minutes in they all end of “doing” it. Laughing, he pulls Katherine closer and thanks her for showing him he “can” be intimate without causing pain to someone.

Garrick nods and he wonders what it would be like growing up again and then giggles and begins laughing horribly long about realizing “he” is the floozy in this setup because she is actually older than him! However, he mentions he can never tell Ethel that unless Miss Amazing does. He pleads with her to try and get along with Ethel because she’s on the team.

“Thank you and I will talk with Ethel about a clean slate. I feel if we all try we can make this team work, there will be bumps and families fight. But I am taking care of eight kids and she is there grandma so she will be a part of their lives.”

He makes her sit up though, cupping her face in his hands, “Know this, Kitty Kat, since I’m your Care-Garr,” smiling and a mock eye roll, “As long as you want me I’ll be there with you and for you. You don’t have to be alone if you don’t want to anymore. Since I am a ninny when it comes to figuring out romance and the heart I’d like your advice. So do I rent a billboard about not being a virgin anymore?” He attempt at hiding his grin is pathetic.

Art by: AZ_Artisan