Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 47: The Real Fun Begins

The message had eaten at him all day. Unfortunately, Ryu wasn't exactly in a position to act on it. It didn't get any better throughout his classes (much of it was tedious with or without powers). In fact, by the time he finally got away long enough to make use of the information, it was getting late in the afternoon.

As soon as he got the chance, he logged in to an unnamed app specifically made for this purpose. Upon opening the email, he got a recording.

"Hello, Ryu. I have an update regarding your 'family'. The girl has come along quite nicely. She's now on par with you, at least, in terms of being 'human'.

"At this point, she's on track to find the first of her siblings, you and the android notwithstanding."

Ryu gritted his teeth at the mention of the term "android". He knew who he was referring to, but it didn't make it hurt any less... There was no love lost between him and whoever this was.

"Before you concern yourself with sneaking out, I had a little chat with your commander, particularly his secretary."

How long ago had this been?

"Talk to him, and he'll let you go on his own terms. Whatever the case may be, you will need to be careful."

The message cut off, leaving Ryu alone with his thoughts.

"Why would he want to help me so much, whoever this guy is?"

His question to himself went unanswered as footfalls made their way toward the room.

He was met by an out of breath Raelynn and Joel.

"So this is where you've been hiding out," The robot girl quipped cheerfully.

"Guess he just doesn't wanna face the wrath of the Moonbeam."

Ryu raised an eyebrow, trying to keep from cracking a smile. "Yeah, 'cause I'm absolutely terrified of a mediocre E-League player with a habit of apparently picking awful gaming aliases. Seriously, 'Moonbeam'? So scary..."

"Hey. Tokido and Daigo make it work. Does anyone stop to think about what those names actually mean... Outside of connecting them with their players, of course?"

Ryu shrugged. "Good question. I'd answer, but I'm about as Japanese as that fortune cookie you ate off the ground that one time."

"Whatever happened to the five-second rule?"

"It's kind of invalidated when you let it sit there for 30 minutes!"

"Some people actually eat ants, you know... or was that roaches... Either way, they have a ton of protein, supposedly!"

"What were you doing here, anyway?"

Raelynn's question did away with the jovial mood for a moment. Ryu opened his mouth to say something, only to close it again upon realizing he still didn't know how much to say at this point about what he learned.

"Is it important?" his sister supplied.

A brief pause. "Yeah... but it can wait until 'Moonbeam' finishes embarrassing himself online for the day." He supposed it could wait a little bit.

Thankfully, no one cared what you looked like or what you could do on the internet. Which was good, as he'd seen some of the people that had Mutations in real life. It probably would have gotten them burned as warlocks and demons in another time. One of his friends, Freddie (who looked like a terrifyingly literal take on Spider-Man) was quite a good example of this.

Joel was indignant. "I don't embarrass myself that often!"

"True," Ryu admitted. "But it's always fun to watch. Lead the way, 'Moonbeam'."