“Excellent! We’ll get the balls rolling. Who’s for pizza?”

“Not for Ferris and I, sadly!” Brad called out, walking towards the door. Ferris pulled himself away from Terri and followed on behind.

“Yes, I’m in please, but just a minute. I’ll be back,” Lucas said, also leaving the room. He followed Brad into the men’s bathroom but spoke at Brad before he started attending to his needs.

“You just can’t stop yourself can you? You just gotta put me down all the time!”

“You followed me to the bathroom? Dude, get a grip,” Brad shot back.

Lucas had had enough of putting up with Brad’s constant put downs- snide comments made in front of people just to make him look small, and being the butt of everyone’s jokes.

Slamming his fist against the hand drier, he stared stone faced into Brad’s. “I need it to stop, and this is me asking nicely. Leave me alone!”

“This is you asking nicely? Because you’ll do what? Use Google on me? Leave me to pee in peace, man.” Lucas clenched his fists and turned, storming out of the bathroom and back into the corridor, bumping into the Secretary who was just coming through.

“Oh there you are. Wh-what’s wrong?” She could instantly tell that something had happened, and it didn’t take long to work out what. “Calm it,” she continued, “Is this about what happened with Brad in the meeting?”

“He’s just such a d-” The door to the bathroom opened.

“Oh, God so you’ve run to tell mommy have you? Boo hoo, did the mean man say hurty words to you?” he mocked.

Ferris came through into the corridor thinking they were about to leave, but on seeing the confrontation, dipped back into the conference room.

“I haven’t gone running to anyone.”

“Sure you have. Your buttons were pushed and you can’t process it.”

“Get over yourself, as-”

“ENOUGH!” The Secretary shouted, and then like the stern teaching getting the attention of her class, she switched back to a slightly quieter volume and calmer tone. “I will not have you two squabble and bicker in front of our new guests. You are grown ass men who need to get your acts together because I won’t stand for it. Now, are you going to Europe, Brad?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“With Ferris?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“FERRIS!” she yelled like a mum announcing dinner to the rest of the house. He must have only been on the other side of the doors as he came through almost instantly. “Get out of here and take this hot head with you. Let me know when you get back.”

She turned her back on them and waited for them to leave through the doors at the end. When the doors had closed, she looked at Lucas sympathetically.

“You need to learn to cool it Lucas. You walked into that one, following him into the men’s room. You should have ignored it.”

“Ma’am, he just gets away with it and I’m sick of it. They’re brand new people in there, meeting us for the first time and he has to put me down. What are they going to think hearing him talk about me like that?”

“What would they think if they saw this?” Lucas looked away and shook his head. “What they will see Lucas, is that you are very good at what you do, you are a team player and have everyone’s backs. They won’t remember what nonsense Brad says.”

She was right, and he knew it.

***

“Ma’am, the report from Do’Lânqwa’s attempt to return to his own planet will be ready for tomorrow. There are techs working on the A/V from his interaction in deep space too, but that will take longer,” Lucas informed, sticking his head around the door to the Secretary’s office.

“Thank you Lucas, are you going home now?”

“Yes ma’am, I’m meeting my sister back home shortly.”

“Ok well have a lovely time. See you tomorrow.”

San Francisco. Later that evening.

Lucas stood outside the cinema waiting for his sister to turn up and she was typically late. The streets were busy with people coming and going, looking to enjoy their evening wining and dining. The LED lights from the cinema, restaurants and clubs lit the streets and gave Lucas a good chance of spotting his sister arrive.

Three minutes more passed and a text message made his phone vibrate in his pocket. He was able to read the text without the phone leaving his pocket.

SORRY HUN, WON’T BE ABLE TO MAKE IT NOW. WILL EXPLAIN WHEN I MAKE IT UP TO YOU XX <3 XX Typical, just my luck, he thought. In the same way he was able to read the text, he was also able to reply. The phone not leaving his pocket. RIGHT NO PROBLEMS. YES YOU OWE ME DINNER TOO NOW. X It probably wasn’t her fault so he went easy on her.

Lucas turned on his heels and walked off back to the BART station. He turned left on the corner off the main street, accidentally bumping into a beautifully dressed woman coming out of a restaurant. She had on a turquoise dress, large pearls around her neck and a very apologetic look on her face.

“Ohhh, I’m so sorry,” Lucas offered first.

The woman fussed and was just as apologetic. “No, no. I wasn’t paying attention. It’s just as much my fault.”

“What’s your fault, babe?” came a deep male voice from behind her from the restaurant. “Is this jerkoff bothering you?” He stepped out onto the street between Lucas and his date.

“No, no. Just calm down sir, we just bumped into each other. It was an accident,” Lucas said, hoping to smooth over the issue, but the angry diner wasn’t having any of it.

“Don’t tell me to calm down. Who the hell do you think you are?” he boomed and before Lucas could plan his next move, the angry man took a swing at him, sending him falling backwards onto the road behind him.

The man wasn’t finished and advanced towards Lucas who was halfway to getting up. His date was shouting at him to stop, attracting a crowd but no one stopped to help. The man grabbed Lucas by his jacket, raising him slightly off the ground. Lucas felt the almightiest pain and everything went black as he was headbutted square on the nose. Lucas yelled out and dropped to the angry man’s feet.

Then from out of nowhere another woman came over, punching Angry Man in the stomach and kneeing him in his tender area. Lucas tried to help but he had both of his hands tentatively checking his agonising nose. The mystery female Samaritan swore and shouted something about going away but with more vulgar language at Angry Man. She then walked over to Lucas and helped him up.

“Come on, let’s get you into the bar over there.”

“I think a drink is the last thing I need right now.”

“I’m on my way to work there. I’ll fix you up and then you can tell me where you stand on the drink after.” She led him across the road to a bar called Garland’s. Once in, they headed for the bar and his saviour sat him on a stool.

“I’ll just fetch some more ice for you,” she said, walking through the double doors.

Lucas sat and looked around, taking in his surroundings. It was an open area with a stage area at the far end. The walls were all exposed brick work with framed photos of Judy Garland all over. There were booths all down the wall opposite the bar all lit up with little table lamps that were each different colours of the rainbow. The bar was really busy and full of happy people. Lucas felt out of place, bleeding down his front. Within a minute, another woman came out with the towel and ice.

“Here you go,” she said, giving them to Lucas wrapped up and ready for application.

“Thanks.” Lucas did a double look at her. There was something.. familiar about her. “Wait, are… where is..?” he trailed off. But he knew. His saviour had gone to fetch ice and came back a minute later with a completely different appearance. She was now in a thigh length black sequined dress with black hair. Earlier she had curly blonde hair.

She gave Lucas a cheeky wink. “How’s your nose doing?”

“Bloody and sore. Bloody sore. Thanks for coming to my aid tonight.”

She looked at him sympathetically. “Well you looked like you needed it, and I’m not one to leave a damsel in distress.” She passed him a glass of whiskey. “Here, knock this back.”

“Thank you. Be honest, how do I look?” he asked removing the towel.

“Ouch!” she winced. “Keep it on a little longer, I’d say. Did you manage to get in a punch of your own?”

“Nope, it was all a bit too quick. And I’m not much of a fighter anyway. Couldn’t hold my own.”

“Oh I don’t know. I think you could have held you own if I gave you the chance!” Lucas laughed at the idea, knowing that would not have been the case.

“See I have these friends… who can all stand up for themselves and fight back when needed. And then there’s me. I do the computer stuff. Whoopy-doo. This one jerk always puts me down. All. The. Time. Thinks because I don’t have the strength to match his, then I’m some sort of joke.”

“I thought you said these people were your friends?”

“Him, less so.”

“Well I always thought of Brad as a bit of a jerk. Too arrogant for my liking,” she said before going off to serve someone waiting at the bar.

Lucas was taken aback. He always considered himself a bit more of the anonymous member of The Collective. Did she recognise him that easily? And how did she know he was talking about him? He had to be careful not to say too much to members of the public in case it got out to the free media which would make The Secretary mad and the whole organisation look amateur to the public. They didn’t want to hear about in-fighting. They wanted their Enhanceds to represent their country and show a united front.

“What do the others say about it?”

Lucas took off his ice pack but his confidant gestured for him to put it back on. “They tell me to ignore it. Be the better person, blah blah blah.”

“Honey, you just gotta keep doing you. No one else can be you as good as you can. So what if they’re all tough? I bet they can’t do computers as well as you do. It’s like the folk who frequent here. Within our rainbow community we have all these different people, all different backgrounds and identities- gay, bi, trans, curious, pan, non-binary. Twinks, jocks, bears, cubs, daddies. We couldn’t all be the same. There’s just no fun in it.”

“That’s true.”

“What do you identify as?”

Lucas blushed, and coughed slightly at her direct questioning. “Aha! Well I’m bisexual, if you must know. You nosey cow.”

She winked at him, “I can sniff them out from miles away. It’s a gift.”

“It’s clearly not the only gift you have.”

“You’ve worked it out then? Clever boy.”

“I’ve not known an enhancement like it.”

“So I must be special?” she teased.

“Special and good at advice. You should be charging for it.”

“First one’s on the house, honey. But I do expect you to stay and clap after my set later.”

“Ooh, you’re performing too? What don’t you do?”

“Stick around and find out.”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Temma Tation. Tonight is Katy Perry night.”

“Ok, but who are you?”

“My boy name? My friends call me Tucker, because well, I’m sure you can guess.”

We take five month time jump in our next issue, Proten #1, ‘Reaching Out’.

Brad, Lucas and Dylan go undercover at college and a chance rescue brings bottle emotions fizzing back up.