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*THE PRESENT*
“Grandma, why are you cackling like that, it’s a bit off-putting?” asked Morgan.
“Oh don’t you worry about me, Darling. I’m entertaining myself, just waiting for Chad to come pick me up,” replied Grandma.
Morgan looked through the doorway from his work desk to see their Grandma on the sofa tapping away at a smart phone. “Chad’s coming here?” they asked with a frown.
“Yes!” said Grandma happily. “I app’d him, and Diego, but she didn’t want to see me. Chad offered to take me for brunch.”
“You app’d him?” asked Morgan, giving up and walking into the lounge. Looking at the phone over her shoulder.
“Yes, this green one here see?” she pointed to the icon,
“Oh whatsapp,” said Morgan.
“This one here,” said Grandma, pointing again.
Morgan chuckled. “No, it’s called ‘Whatsapp’. You do know brunch is probably a trap right?”
Grandma shrugged. “Perhaps, but I don’t think so. Chad is so rarely unhanded.” She sounded a little disappointed. “Besides he has some new research into Cthulhu he wants to talk to me about.”
“Chad is interested in Cthulhu?” asked Morgan, confused.
“Honestly, Darling. I know Chad infuriates you but he is your brother and you know hardly anything about him. I bet you couldn’t even name his dog,” Grandma gently scolded.
“Chad has a dog?” asked Morgan.
Grandma looked up to glare at Morgan, then chuckled. “Oh you, you’re winding me up.”
Morgan smirked. “Of course I know Pebbly. But where did you get a phone?”
“Alex, gave it to me, they introduced me to something called ‘Twitter’. They said it was the greatest expression of chaos in this time and place. They were right! It has been quite diverting.”
“Grandma, what did you do?” asked Morgan.
“Nothing,” she said with a smirk of her own. “I just asked some people, some questions.”
Morgan took the phone out of her hands. “Oh no, you can’t go on Twitter. I like the world as is. No destroying it before the wedding, we had a deal.
“Really Darling? I’m hardly going to ‘destroy the world’ with Twitter.
“It’s a chance I can’t take,” replied Morgan.
**
*THE PAST (Two days after Chad’s 16th Birthday)*
Chad stared at the reflection in the full length mirror. His new costume had been designed with the idea that Morgan’s sidekick costume would match it. It looked good on him, the gold highlights to the mostly white costume brought out the highlights in Chads blonde hair, and the warm tones in his hazel eyes.
It wouldn’t have been such a good combination on Morgan, in all honesty. Morgan had a lot more green in their eyes than Chad, and their light brown curly hair didn’t shine the same way Chad’s did. Not to mention Morgan had an air of being permanently crumpled, no matter what you put them in. And the white just amplified that effect. But Mom and Dad’s colours were red and gold, and black and gold respectively. So the white and gold fit the theme. Which as Mom pointed out is vital for marketing.
Of course it wouldn’t matter anymore. Morgan had thrown away their sidekick costume. Turns out Morgan had been planning and carrying out small time heists for over a year. Mom had found out and she and Morgan had a stand up row in the middle of the Fairness Association cafeteria. Chad hated when any of his family argued, and Morgan and Mom argued more and more as Morgan had gotten older. But this was the worst he ever seen it, he didn’t think he’d ever seen either one of them so angry. Mom usually avoided arguments in public but she’d really gone off on Morgan. They had really upset her, she’d accused them playing at being a villain just to spite her.
Chad didn’t understand why Morgan was doing any of this, everything was planned out. They were going to be The Chadster and Sidekick. They were going to be the greatest hero team ever. Make Mom and Dad proud, do good, save people. Chad couldn’t understand why Morgan would give that up to… what? Steal money from credit unions? Mildly inconvenience people? Just make Mom mad? It didn’t make even the tiniest bit of sense. Chad could feel his certainties about the world shift beneath his feet and he hated it.
Chad changed out of the hero costume into his sleep clothes. He carefully hung the costume on a hanger and placed it inside the wardrobe when something on the bottom of the wardrobe caught his eye. A round smooth stone that was faintly glowing with a greenish hue. He picked it up, it fit very easily into the palm of his hand. It was cool to the touch but very quickly warmed in his grip.
“Oh my. You have grown up!” came a woman’s voice from behind him.
Chad spun round, the woman was tall and somehow familiar. Slightly fuzzy around the edges, with twisted horns coming out of her head. “You…. Who are you?” he asked. “How did you get in here?”
“Where is here? It’s terribly depressing,” said the woman looking round.
“The Fairness Association barracks,” replied Chad, feeling very silly stood facing down a strange possible villain in his pyjamas.
“Oh Dear Heart, you don’t live here, surely?” asked the woman appearing to be genuinely upset at the thought.
“Only when I’m on duty,” replied Chad, falling back on honestly in his confusion.
“Why would you be ‘on duty’, you’re just a baby?” asked the woman.
“I’m 16!” bristled Chad. “And one of the strongest heroes on the FA’s roster. It is my duty to use that power to protect people.”
“Well, that phrase was straight from your Mother wasn’t it, Dear Heart?” said the woman sadly.
“How do you know my Mom?” asked Chad, starting to feel a little panicked.
“I gave birth to her,” said the woman with a smirk that reminded Chad of Morgan. When they were a kid, doing something that Morgan knew would get them into trouble…
“I met you,” said Chad slowly. “You gave me… this?” he looked at the stone in his hand. “But I lost it, years ago, I forgot about it…”
The woman clapped her hands. “That’s right, Dear Heart. You and Morgan and Diego, you came to visit me in the attic. Oh you were so small back then. I gave you the sending stone. But you didn’t ‘lose’ it. Your Mom took it away. Trying to keep us apart. But I told you, it’s yours. It will always be there when you need it,” She smiled and it made her look more like the heroic statue of her Chad passed every time he walked through the FA lobby.
“Grandma?” he asked. “But Mom said you were… you were a hero, but you used too much magic and got corrupted. You tried to end reality and then died to save it when you realised what you had done. She said she tried to let people remember you as you had been and that’s why the statue… we’re not supposed to talk about it.”
“I should imagine she doesn’t want people to talk about it. It would ruin her carefully crafted image,” scoffed Grandma.
“You shouldn't talk about Mom like that, Morgan always says things like that. Mom is a hero, she has saved so many people. She’s good,” said Chad frowning.
Grandma sighed. “She is, Dear Heart. Everything you have just said about her is true. Many people are alive today because of your Mom. And you are 16 years old and basically a solider because of your Mom. May the dreamers waken soon.”
“Wait!” said Chad excitedly. “You were a hero and then you were corrupted and became a villain, right?”
“Er… that’s a very simplistic way of seeing a complex series of events, but in essence I suppose you are not wrong… I wouldn’t describe it like that…” answered Grandma.
“Maybe that’s what happened to Morgan! They were corrupted or… brainwashed! That’s why they don’t want to be my sidekick anymore.” Chad eyes shone with the excitement of having figured it out.
“Oh Dear Heart,” said Grandma gently. “I talk to Morgan quite a lot. I think they just didn’t want to be a sidekick. I mean it not a great job.”
“But it was going to be us, against all the dastardly fiends of the world. Morgan wouldn’t just leave me. Morgan’s always been there. Something must have changed,” argued Chad.
“Okay,” said Grandma. “Let’s look at this another way. Why do you want to be a hero?”
Chad looked confused. “I’ve always wanted to be a hero.”
“Okay,” said Grandma patiently. “But why?”
“Because,” started Chad then he stopped and frowned. He didn’t really understand the question. “Because I have powers, I have to use them to help people. So I’m a hero.”
“But why do you have to help people,” asked Grandma.
“Because, that’s what good people do,” said Chad as if it were obvious. “If you don’t help people you might as well be evil.”
Grandma looked at him for a long moment. “But why not be evil? What even is evil? By whose definition are we defining evil. Or good for that matter.”
Sudden realisation dawned on Chad. “Oh my… you brainwashed Morgan!”
Grandma pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dear Heart, I don’t believe Morgan is the one who’s brainwashed.” She looked Chad in the eye. “Let me explain, I can’t brainwash anyone from the pocket reality I am trapped in. The only thing on your realm I can influence in even a small way is the sending stones. And even then only for someone I share blood with.”
Chad looked triumphant. “Of course you would say that! You’re trying to brainwash me. So, you were a great hero and were corrupted by evil magic. You were forced to try and destroy reality. You fought it off and saved us all, but you were still corrupted…”
“I destroyed 4 whole realities, Dear Heart. And I have no regrets,” Grandma pointed out, but Chad ignored her and kept talking.
“…So Mom had no choice but to lock you away. You, perhaps still under the control of the evil magic, or maybe you didn’t even realise, you spread the corruption to Morgan! It explains everything.”
Grandma went to say something, frowned, then spoke. “Absolutely none of what you just said is factually true, but damn, I cannot fault your logic. It could have happened like that. It didn’t. But then I would say that wouldn’t I?”
“Exactly! So all I have to do is discover how the corruption got to you and undo it. Then I can save you and Morgan.” Chad looked very pleased with himself.
“All you have to do, huh? You know what, I look forward to watching you try,” agreed Grandma.
“Outstanding!” said Chad happily. “Erm… do you have any idea what corrupted you?”
Grandma gave the question some serious thought. “I guess… The pointlessness of an uncaring multiverse, where we are the mere figments of the twisted imaginations of barely conscious beings we could never hope to even begin to understand?
“Hmmm, interesting,” mused Chad. “And when did you start to feel like this?”
Grandma blew some air through her lips. “I mean it’s hard to pin down a starting point, but I guess I committed to the ideal around the time I joined the cult of Cthulhu. Your Mom was around 5 or 6. And when I took the pact I got a big power increase and some new abilities.”
Chad nodded. “The cult of Cthulhu, of course. I need to find out more about them…” his sentence was interrupted by a huge yawn.
“As much as I’m looking forward to seeing this play out. It’s late Dear Heart. You should get some sleep,” said Grandma with a small smile. “Good night.”
Chad yawned again. “Good night, Grandma.”
**
*THE PRESENT*
The doorbell rang as Morgan slipped the phone into their pocket.
“That’ll be Chad,” said Grandma with a happy smile, standing up to go answer the door. She disappeared into the hallway Morgan groaned as they heard Chad’s voice boom from the door.
“Hello Grandma, it’s me Chad! Your Grandson!!”
“Hello Dear Heart, I swear you get taller every time I see you… wait, why do you have metal arms?”
‘Oh shit,’ Morgan thought to themselves. They started moving towards the fire exit. Maybe they could get to the street level before…
“Morgan!” shouted Grandma. “Alex pulled Chad’s arms off!”
Morgan cursed they would never make it to the fire escape before Grandma made it back into the lounge.
“Well, actually they pulled one off, they teleported the other one. Which was bad timing because the two for one sale at the robot limb shop had just ended,” Chad explained.
“I suspect that was rather the point, Dear Heart,” said Grandma as she walked back into the lounge Chad on her heels.
“That dastardly fiend,” said Chad. Like it had never even occurred to him that Alex would be that petty.
Grandma crossed her arms and stared at Morgan.
“What?” said Morgan after an uncomfortable moment’s silence. “I got Chad on the do not kill list. Alex is a mass murderer who kills people who look at them funny. That was a big ask on its own. And it’s not like there is a ‘do not rip limbs off’ list.”
Chad looked awkwardly between Grandma and Morgan. “I’m fine Grandma. And my new arms are pretty cool. If anything they upped my ranking with the FA.”
Morgan rolled their eyes at that and Grandma raised an eyebrow at Morgan menacingly. “Sorry,” said Morgan begrudgingly to their Grandma.
Chad assumed the apology was for him. “It’s quite alright, Morgan. After all you don’t control what Alex does. I admit having him as a sibling-in-law is going to be challenging.”
“What?” said Morgan, horrified expression creeping across their face.
“When you marry Alex, I’ll be their brother-in-law. It will make family gatherings awkward, with my arms and that time they killed Mom and Dad…”
“They got better,” said Morgan and Grandma dismissively in perfect synchronicity.
“Corruption,” Chad muttered under his breath before continuing. “But all families have their rough spots to get over.”
“Like Martha trapping me in a pocket reality for what she hopes is all eternity,” agreed Grandma. “Why don’t you wait outside for me Dear Heart? I just need to grab my bag.
Chad left with a hearty “Of course Grandma!”
When he had gone Grandma grinned at Morgan. “I take it you and Alex had overlooked the in-law situation?” she said smugly.
Morgan nodded.
“I get to tell Alex,” said Grandma with glee. “That will satisfy my need for revenge. Otherwise I would have to think of something else.”
“You can tell them,” said Morgan quickly. “I don’t want too.”
“And I would like my phone back?” she held out her hand. Morgan handed it over without complaint. Grandma nodded in satisfaction and left after Chad, Morgan collapsed on the sofa.
“Think of the tax benefits,” they muttered to themselves.