TOH RIAN

Toh Rian left out a deep sigh, as he leaned back on his ergonomic chair.

His first contact with the other Players had been a sound failure. Then again, he was pretty sure that it wasn’t entirely his fault. That kid was just impossible to talk to! Once again he hoped that the other ones would be more mature, but Jason’s words had also sparked some sort of self-criticism. Had he been to rush in trying to contact him? Perhaps getting there in person would have been better? Maybe what the kid said about needing to get out of his bedroom wasn’t so farfetched after all…

He left out another sigh, as he cursed his bad luck. If just Jason had accepted to help him the combination of their powers would have allowed them to find the others much more quickly.

« Well, there’s no point in ruminating so much…what’s done it’s done » he tried to comfort himself out loud, as he stood up from the chair.

He looked around in the dimly lit room. The chair he had just stood up from was a last generation model, made for professional gamers. Indeed, it stood opposite to a very elaborate computer, hand assembled for maximum performance. On the same desk several sheets of papers and journals, some scribbled some partially cut. The desk lamp which lit the working station, or “headquarters” as he liked to call it, sent a tenuous stream of light to the whole room. Next to it, on the right corner of the desk, a small frame picture. A small dark-skinned child was smiling, two ice creams in both of her hands. Her blue eyes were wide open, as her face made an exaggerate expression, mimicking her intention to eat both ice creams at once. Behind her a man was laughing. He had the same olive-coloured complexion of the little girl, with short black curly hair framing a morbid face. His nose was not exactly symmetrical, and his lineaments probably a little too effeminate for the tall and bulky body he displayed.

Toh Rian looked at the picture with a faint smile and a slightly sorrowed expression. He sure looked much happier back then. How old was he at that time? Kala was four, so he must have been about twenty-seven. Time passed so fast…

He shook his head, trying to free his minds from painful thoughts. Looking at the rest of the room, with the teleporting kid’s words still in mind, he felt a hint of embarrassment: dirty clothes were piling on top of each other on an armchair in a corner, scrap paper and rests of food boxes were sprinkled left and right on the floor and on the unmade bed that was right behind the desk. It was already a small room, rented in a floor of similar rooms with a shared kitchen, though he was not really the cooking type. Luckily for an extra fee he had a small private bathroom, which saved him the trouble of having to share that too. He looked again at the picture. Jason’s words burning in his mind. “Live a little”.

He let himself fall on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, with both hands behind his head. One more deep sigh, this time addressed to himself. How did he end up there?

He remembered being a straight-A student in high school. He didn’t really excel in writing and anything which required an understanding of others’ really – including social skills. But since the moment he found out about science, and later programming, he was hooked. To him the natural world and numbers, as well as computer code, made so much more sense than people. They were logical and straightforward. No unnecessary convolution, no hidden meanings to read between the lines or indirect feelings to catch from a quick face expression.

Then again, people seemed to be more important than science in the actual world. The “real” world, as they called it, gave more credit to how you expressed your ideas than to the validity or soundness of your arguments. Riches, fame and success was something exclusive to those who could convince others they were right, definitely not for those who were actually right. That was a lesson he learned the hard way, as he lost his job to a much less capable software engineer but with a more “cooperative” approach. He was still a very capable professional with a PhD, so it wouldn’t have been an issue to find a new job. But at the time he was going through some additional personal battles…and…he just sought refuge where he knew he could find it. The cyberspace.

Whether it was videogames, forums, blogs, animes, webcomics or any other form of interaction and entertainment, so far as it was virtual it was good to him. He felt happy, he felt understood. He felt safe. After all what is more soothing than the possibility of living countless adventures, of realising your fantasies and being whomever, you want to be? Even more if you can do that in the comfort of your own bedroom and without taking any risks. He really could never understand those who preferred the “real” world. That only makes sense if you were born with a certain physique or a certain family name. For everyone else, it didn’t make sense. Reality was just too much disappointing in comparison.

Unfortunately, his parents didn’t agree. To be honest they hadn’t agreed with him on anything, since he mentioned how he had decided not to be religious anymore. « That science of yours is killing your soul! » they said, when he said he was moving abroad. But they kept trying to get “their son” back, even going so far as to introduce him to a very well-groomed and proper girl. Perhaps someone would call it an arranged marriage, but he had never really been with a girl before. So, to him Shyla seemed like a beautiful angel and something he could have never obtained on his own. Her beauty – probably in the average for most people but that felt exceptional for him – had blinded him from seeing the truth that larked behind it. A strict and fanatic woman for whom religious doctrine was the only acceptable view, and non-compliance was not an option.

Yet he felt like he could probably bear this, so far as he was careful to hide his true thoughts and passions. But when Kala was born, everything changed. The immense love that he felt when looking at her infant crying face for the first time, was quickly replaced by fear. Fear that she would grow up without a proper education. Fear that her young and innocent mind would be spoiled by dogmas and closed off to any outside opinion. Fear that she would never get to experience the beauty of freedom of thought and expression.

When he finally found the courage to file for divorce, he was sure that he would obtain custody of his daughter and allow her to live the life she deserved. But it was an impulsive and poorly calculated move. He didn’t realize that the case would go to court or that his poor social skills would once again take priority over the reasonability of his arguments. He didn’t expect that his parents siding with his now ex-wife would be a devastating blow to his case, nor that losing his job in the middle of the case would be the final drop to infringe his hopes and shatter his heart. He had lost her. He had lost his child.

…

Toh Rian brushed the tears off his eyes. It wasn’t time to linger on that thoughts. It didn’t matter if he hadn’t been allowed to see his daughter more than once a year. It didn’t matter if during those brief visits he would feel ashamed, of the man he had become and of the mistakes he had committed. It didn’t matter if his fears of his daughter becoming ever more like her mother and ever more adverse to him seemed to grow ever closer. Everything would change. Since the moment he woke up, the day after meeting the mysterious man, and realized that he had been granted extraordinary abilities. Since that moment he knew that his life would change forever.

What should he do with those powers? Should he try to get money? Perhaps a new job? Come up with a strategy to get back his daughter? The excitement he felt at the thought of hugging once more his little “pumpkin” quickly faded, leaving space to a new resolve. First, he would become a man worthy of being Kala’s father. Someone that could make her proud, someone that she could look up to and admire. For a videogame and comic book fan as himself, the choice of whom to become was an easy one: a superhero.

A new rush of adrenaline travelled through his vein. He stood up from the bed, took his laptop and put a coat on. Then he left, to the café where he had met the mystery man on that faithful day when the internet was not functioning in his house, and he was forced to get out.

If he had learned one lesson during the time he had been alive, it was that the world was full of injustices. Mafia bosses walking around carelessly despite everyone knew who they were. Girls forced into prostitution under the nose of law enforcement. White-collar criminals stealing and losing billions of dollars only to pin responsibility on the market or on some other petty excuse to get away untouched. Corruption, Nepotism, Torture, Sexual Harrassment, Political Assassinations…there was so much that was wrong in that world.

As everyone else who think about these things, he had been overwhelmed by the injustice and unfairness of our reality. That was also why he chose the cyberspace over the “real” world. How could he ever hope to save the entire world if he couldn’t even protect his own daughter?

But now things were different. With his new powers he could access secret footage, top secret documentation, camera recordings and much more. He could control drones, wiretap conversations and cross-reference databases that were inaccessible even to law enforcement. The “Cyber Crusader” was how people had started to call him on the internet and in the press, a reference to Gotham’s famous superhero. His tips and evidence had led to the conviction and incarceration of hundreds of criminals in just a few weeks. People said he was perhaps an artificial intelligence who was ordered to bring justice to the world. After all what he did seemed impossible, as well as the rhythm with which he went after criminals. He was relentless in his quest for justice, working at all hours of the day and night.

During one of those sleepless nights trying to find evidence of money laundering for a drug cartel he had randomly thought of the butterfly card, the one that had first made him realize his powers. There it had reappeared, almost by magic. Seeing the chapters count going down urged him to find out more. Looking at the number of Players, then, made him think something. What if they joined forces? As much as he was doing, he was still far from really changing anything. There was just so much that a guy with a computer could do to bring justice. But if as many as seven individuals with supernatural powers – whatever they may be – joined forces? A real-life superhero team capable of thwarting injustice on a global scale!

“The first pitch didn’t go so well…” he thought, still upset for his unconclusive discussion with the teleporting kid. “But you know what they say, practice makes perfect.”.

He smiled as he looked at a camera recording on his laptop, sipping his hot coffee.

He might had just found the second candidate for his Super Team.