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In the morning.
Helena is bored at her house, She woke up earlier. She does nothing but sit on the couch in the living room doing absolutely nothing. Then a really fantastic idea appeared in her mind out of nowhere. Instead of just sitting on the couch all day doing nothing, she decides to go to New York to meet Robert. After preparing herself and calling the chauffeur to come over to pick her up, she gets into the car.
“Where do you want to go?” The chauffeur asks.
“New York city, please.” Helena answers.
Helena uses her phone and dials Robert's number to call him.
Meanwhile
Robert is at the park, sitting down at the bench. Looking at the beautiful trees and the bright sky and valueing their beauty with a smile. Then his phone vibrates, Someone is calling him. He picks up the phone and answers.
“Hello?” Says Robert.
“Hi!” Says a female voice, with a happy tone that has excitement.
Robert instantly recognizes that it's Helena. He is happy to hear her beautiful and smooth voice through the phone.
“Helena! What a pleasant surprise! I'm happy to hear from you on the phone! How are you?”
“I'm fine.” Helena answers, delighted to answer Robert's question.
“Great to hear!”
“How about we meet up today? Like right now? I don't have any work to do. My father just lets me do whatever I want, so I thought that I would go to New York to see you.” Says Helena.
“Sure! Why not?” Robert is excited to meet this beautiful Angel. “But where can we meet?” He asks.
“I would say Central park. Then we plan for what to do together. I got the whole day ahead of me and I'm looking forward to spending that time with you.” Says Helena.
“I know that might sound crazy but I'm actually at Central park right now, Total coincidence!” Says Robert.
He hears Helena chuckling through the phone. “Then I guess you can just wait until we meet, I'm on my way.” She says.
“Sure, I can't wait to see you!” Says Robert.
“Same.”
Two hours later.
Robert is walking around at the park. Already two hours have passed and he barely has any patience, but it's worth it to meet her. He values time and tries not to waste not even a second in order to be as productive as possible. He would never wait two hours for anything and the only circumstance where it's worth it is to meet Helena.
Then he sees her in front of him, She seems to be looking for him moving her head in different directions despite him being close to her, he is right behind her 2 meters away. “Hey!” He says with a happy tone. Catching her attention.
Helena turns around and sees Robert in front of her. “Robert! Hi!” She says with a bright smile, happy that she meets him again.
Helena walks closer to Robert. “How are you?” She asks.
“I'm doing fine.” Robert answers Helena's question.
“So.. what are we going to do?” Helena wants to be with Robert for that day but doesn't know what activity to engage in with him.
“Maybe we can hang out again? Walk around the city? Go to a cafe while talking about our lives? How does it sound?” Robert asks.
“Sounds great! It's 7:00 AM. We got the whole day ahead of us. So why not?” Helena agrees and she wants to spend some time with Robert.
“Okay let's begin!” Says Robert. “We can begin by walking at this beautiful park“
Robert and Helena are now walking at Central park.
“Wow! This park is huge! I can barely see the buildings that surround it.” Says Helena. She takes a deep breath through her nose, appreciating how good and fresh the air is. “And the air is really fresh, and it's sunny and warm here, unlike where I live.” She says.
“I know. Right?” Says Robert.
Minutes later, Robert and Helena are now talking about their pasts.
“So you were at Myrtle Eagan's school for girls?” Asks Robert.
“Yes.” Answers Helena.
“Was it nice back then?” He asks.
“No. I had to spend most of the time at that school learning about all of this Kier nonsense. And if I disagree with any of it, I get punished.”
“Oh. That must have sucked.” Robert feels bad for Helena.
“Yeah, totally.” She says. “And then I went to Seton hall university and it was a lot nicer and much less restrictive than Myrtle Eagans's school for girls. This is when I was receiving real knowledge that would benefit me and not some nonsensical myths about Kier. And when I graduated, I got a master’s degree in business.” Helena talks about her college days.
“That sounds nice!” Says Robert.
“Thanks!” Says Helena. “And you?” She asks.
“I used to get bullied in elementary school as a kid because I was a nerd and a spoiled Nepo baby back then. It was a private school but still, I was richer than all of those kids combined. People hated me because I was acting like a nerd and doing the “Um akshually” thing the entire time.”
Helena laughs at Robert as he's mocking a nerd’s actions and behavior while pointing with his finger up.
“You know, Helena? My parents injected me with compound V when I was 8 years old. Days after, the effects had started to show up. This is when I started to have sharpened senses. It was one of the coolest things to ever happen to me in my life.” Robert talks about his childhood.
“But during a stormy night when I was 12 years old, My parents would go outside for work and come back in the evening, But they didn't come back that day, And the next day, our Butler Elijah told me about something.. that made me heartbroken..” Robert couldn't finish while he was talking to Helena with a sad, monotone voice.
Helena begins to think that Robert’s parents passed away. “They died?” Helena asks.
Robert sighs. “Yeah.. They were driving and their car crashed on the road and they both passed away.”
“I'm sorry.” Says Helena.
“No. It's okay. But at least Elijah took care of me and raised me since then. As the saying goes: “There's nothing greater than a father's guiding hand.”.”
“The last time I saw my mother was when I was 16 years old. I still don't know what happened to her. Maybe she left us and the company and is now living somewhere else, or maybe she's dead. Everytime I ask my dad about this, he doesn't answer at all. She suddenly disappeared.” Helena relates to Robert.
“Did you like her? or was she like your dad?” Robert asks Helena.
“Yes. She was acting like a human being and not talking to me about the nine core principles or the tempers or whatever like my dad does.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. I loved her.”
As Robert and Helena are walking around the park. Helena is now craving something sweet that she always wanted to try.
“I want to try out some ice cream.” Says Helena.
“Are you sure about that? You have weak enamel. They are sensitive to cold and sugar.” Says Robert.
“I brush my teeth twice a day for 90 seconds each time, so I know how to take care of them. In fact, I never tried an ice cream before so I really want to.”
“Okay then. I know a really good ice cream place that we can get from, it's not that far away, It's located by the park.” Says Robert.
“We can just get our ice cream from that store and then get back to the park.” Says Helena.
“Sure thing! Now is a really good time for Ice cream.”, Robert agrees to Helena's words. “Mm hm.” She nods. “I mean it's not summer yet. but today is surprisingly hot.” Says Robert.
Robert and Helena enter the store as Robert orders the ice cream.
Minutes later.
They are now back to walking in the park, each of them holding a chocolate ice cream in their hand.
“Mmmm. It's very sweet!” Says Helena as she licks her chocolate ice cream.
“But not as sweet as you.” Robert flirts with Helena. She chuckles as she's blushing. “What? That's the truth.” He says.
Helena asks Robert a question. “What are your hobbies?”
“Programming, Playing martial arts, Meditating, Cooking, Swimming, Robotics, reading. And even more!” Robert talks about his hobbies.
“Wow! All of this?” Helena is amazed by how capable Robert seems to be. “Did you say swimming?” She asks.
“Yeah. Swimming is one of my favorite things to do. It's very calming, like the rhythmic movement, weightless sensation, and the blue mind effect, it feels so good.” Robert answers.
“Yeah I can relate, I swim too. I have a swimming pool inside my house. I swim for 10 laps 2 or 3 times a week. I like the feeling of being underwater, this is where I feel truly isolated and alone and not having to deal with any bullshit. But sadly, I can only hold my breath for 2 and a half minutes.” Says Helena.
“And what are yours?” Robert asks Helena about her hobbies.
“I love observing nature, reading books, and I like to draw.” Helena talks about her hobbies. “My favourite book of all time is Sherlock Holmes, and sometimes I'm really curious to know about other parts of the world and their history so I get myself some history books that tell the story of the ancient civilizations that dominated the world thousands of years ago.”
“Observing nature, huh? Is there a place that you want to see, Helena?”
“There’s a place that is located near Lumon which is named Woe’s Hollow. Which is supposed to feature “The tallest waterfall on the planet”.” Says Helena, looking at Robert in the eyes while air quoting the sentence to show that she doesn't buy it. “But I hate to tell you, Robert. The waterfall is very short, as tall as a two story building. And that made me have the curiosity to go visit the actual tallest waterfall on the planet.”
“I know where the tallest waterfall is.” Says Robert.
“Really?” Says Helena.
“Angel falls, Venezuela. And I promise that I'll take you there.”
*Promise?”
“I Promise.” Robert winks as Helena.
Helena smiles at Robert’s promise and is excited to see the real tallest waterfall in the world with him in the near future.
Meanwhile.
In the meeting room at Vought tower, Reggie is on his seat feeling bored. Ashley Walks in the room.
“Hey, Ashley. I haven't seen Robert til now. Did anything happen to him.?”
“Nothing. he's fine, don't worry. Tek knight requested to take a day off.”
“Oh…” Reggie is disappointed that he won't see his best friend at work today. Ashley leaves the room and then there's no one but him and Black Noir on his right, drawing something. Curiosity pushes Reggie to get off his chair to see what he is drawing. He walks closer and closer to Black Noir. He seems to be drawing some cartoon characters. Reggie takes a closer look at the drawings and he starts to recognize them.
"Buster beaver? I remember going there with Nathan. The food was god-awful, but the games? They were the shit, baby!" Reggie chuckles. "Ah, those were the days" Reggie catches Black Noir's eyes as he suddenly stops drawing and looks up at Reggie standing next to him, then he gets back to drawing. Reggie sighs and then gets out of the meeting room to find a way to kill the boredom. One minute feels like an eternity without Robert.
Reggie goes to Maggie's room as he sees her drinking. She looks sad. “Hey, are you okay?” Reggie wants to make sure that his colleague is fine. Maggie doesn't respond to him, Reggie then gets out of her room and as he walks around the hallways, Director Adam Bourke enthusiastically walks to Reggie and greets him.
“Yo, Yo, Yo! It's the A-train himself! What's up, Dog?” Says Adam as he aggressively shakes hands with Reggie from the sheer excitement. And Reggie feels cringed at the way Director Bourke talks with him, he tries to sound and talk like black people as a way to relate to him but fails horribly at it. “Oh, Hey.” Says Reggie with a bored tone. “Good news, we have now begun filming “Double Standard” today. and we will need you on the studio in like 20 minutes, okay?” Says director Bourke.
“But how long is it going to take?”
“I don't know.. maybe 8 hours?” Director Bourke shrugs.
Reggie sighs. “Okay then..” At least Reggie has something to kill the boredom with, so he goes with Adam Bourke to the studio where the filming takes place. Still, it's better than nothing.
At noon. Robert and Helena are walking around Manhattan. Helena follows Robert as Robert wants to show Helena something funny.
"Where are we going?" She asks.
"Trust me, Helena. You're gonna love it." Says Robert.
After a few minutes of walking in the busy streets of Manhattan. Helena can see a nearby cinema. "Are we going to the cinema?" She asks. But Robert doesn't answer, not until they both finally reach the destination which may or may not be the cinema which Helena thinks that he will take her to. But turns out: Helena was right. They both enter the cinema. Robert already just bought the tickets from the box office. As they are both now in the lobby, Helena sees that most of the movie posters are those dumb Vought movies. But then she was bewildered to see the picture of Robert on of the posters. It was one of his movies titled "Tek knight lives".
"That's you!" She says with a happy surprised face looking at Robert.
"What?" He looks behind to see what Helena means by this, she is clearly referring to one of his movies. "This? No that's a random guy named Tek knight, I'm Robert. I look nothing like him." Robert sarcastically denies that he is Tek knight, Helena chuckles in response to his words.
Then Robert goes to the concession stand to buy a large bucket of popcorn. Then they enter the auditorium to pick up their seats by sitting together. "So.. we are going to watch a superhero movie, huh?" Says Helena. "Yeah, but we're gonna watch it to laugh at how hilariously bad it is. Trust me, you'll love it." The movie starts, and it's a vintage movie that features a powerful superhero who goes by the name of "Soldier Boy" and his superhero team "Payback".
While they are watching the movie, Helena is already giggling at how goofy the script is. How bad the acting looks like. "Popcorn?" Robert hands Helena his bucket and shares it with her. Helena accepts Robert’s offer and eat popcorn with him.
In the movie, a red head woman with an all red suit and a domino mask appears. "This is Crimson Countess. She's actually one of my favorite superheroes. I remember when I had a crush on her as a kid." Robert says quietly. "Not gonna lie, she does look beautiful." Says Helena. "But still, you're lightyears ahead of her in terms of beauty." Robert’s deep affection for Helena vastly overshadows his shallow crush on Crimson Countess when he was young.
While they are watching the movie, their hands accidentally touch. "Oh. Sorry!" Robert apologizes. They were both blushing from the embarrassment.
45 minutes into the movie. The popcorn is already empty, and it seems that in the movie, Soldier Boy is tied up while facing a very angry soviet commander. The Soviet commander punches Soldier Boy right in the gut.
"Do not test my patience." Says the commander angrily with a heavy soviet accent "I know why you're here. Because we have your western whore girlfriend, Crimson Countess. Your preteen sidekick, gunpowder, and their dossier, with all your plans."
"Bullshit." Says Soldier Boy nonchalantly. But then the commander shows him gunpowder's helmet.
"You son of a bitch. If you hurt a hair on either of their heads, I'll kill every last one of you commie bastards!" Soldier Boy speaks sharply and is angry, but his face doesn't say so due to how bad the acting is.
"One man against the entire soviet army. Who do you think you are, God?" The commander asks,
"No. God would have mercy, I wont." Soldier Boy responds.
The weird sudden zoom in shot, the cliché line and soulless acting. Helena was hysterically laughing at how poorly made this movie is. Her eyes are filled with tears.
"How did this movie even gross 483 million dollars in the first place?" Says Helena while still laughing between her words.
"People are dumb, so why put so much effort into making a good story when we can just do pop culture references and put some marketing while we're at it?" Says Robert.
"That explains a lot." Says Helena.
They both get back to watching the movie.
"You what else I'll do?" Says Soldier Boy.
"What?' Says the commander.
"I'll distract you."
The commander hears footsteps behind him and looks back, he sees the TNT twins. "TNT. Detonate!" The twins say in unity as they take out the commander with their powers and then free Soldier Boy.
Both Robert and Helena were giggling and laughing at the movie. Then their hands started touching again while both of their hands were resting on the hand rest. They weren't shy this time, they both like the touch and feel of each other's hand while being immersed in the movie as they now sit hand in hand.
It seems that in the movie, Payback is surrounded by the Soviets from all directions.
"Oh no! What are we going to do now?" Gunpowder panics.
"All we need to do is two steps only:" Says Soldier Boy confidently to motivate Payback to keep on fighting and never give up. "First we Red, then we Thunder, let's Red Thunder!!"
"Yeah!!" All Payback members say in unity as they are now motivated and then they effortlessly punch and kick the soviets.
"Oh, wow! Let's Red Thunder. So clever!" Says Helena with irony.
After the movie finishes, Both Robert and Helena walk out of the cinema to see what else they would do together.
At Lumon, James Eagan walks to Natalie to see what Helena is up to.
"Where is Helena?" He asks.
"She's not here, Mr Eagan. I talked to anyone here until the chauffeur told me that he took Helena to New York city as an order from her."
"Why did she go there?" Jame wonders.
"Perhaps she went there as a way to tame her tempers. I'm pretty sure that she will come back in the evening." Says Natalie.
Robert and Helena are walking around the streets. Helena smells something really good and delicious. "Mmmm. What's that smell? It smells so good!"
"I would say we're near a pizza restaurant." Says Robert.
“Now I want this pizza thing!” Helena craves for this food that smells really good named “Pizza”.
“Sure thing!” Robert and Helena head to the pizza restaurant.
“It seems crowded here.” Helena is annoyed. “Maybe we can eat this pizza in the park on a picnic.” She suggests.
“Good idea.” Says Robert, he agrees with her.
They both enter the restaurant. Robert orders a takeaway of a Large Pepperoni New York style pizza. After a few minutes of waiting, they both walk outside the restaurant. Robert is holding the order which is a bag that contains the pizza box and two carbonated soda drinks. “Helena. Would you mind holding this for a second?” He asks while handing it to her. Helena holds the bag. She sees Robert looking at his Watch, he clicks on the watch a few times while the sounds of beeps and boops can be heard from his watch. “Okay, I finished.” Robert takes the order from Helena. “Thank you!” He says.
As Robert and Helena are walking in the park trying to find the perfect spot, Helena asks Robert a question.
“Did your watch make these squeaky noises?”.
“Yeah. It's a smartwatch.” Robert answers. “
“But what were you trying to do?” She asks.
“You'll see.”
Robert sees a large tree with a large shadow. “I found the perfect spot.” Robert goes to the tree holding the food while Helena follows him. A drone flies close to them as it has the picnic mat folded and wipes tissue. Robert takes the mat and the drone flies away. He unfolds the mat and puts it on the ground. “Uhh. Is that something you made yourself?” Helena is confused. “Yeah. I called my drones with my smartwatch to give us the mat, and the wipes so that we can properly clean ourselves after we finish eating.” “oh.” Says Helena.
They are sitting right under the tree in its shadow and eating the delicious pizza. Right after they finish eating they both drink. Robert hands Helena a carbonated soda that is titled “Turbo Rush” with a picture of a running man in a blue suit and dark goggles. Helena opens the can and takes a sip. “It's fuming. Is this okay?” “Yeah it is.” After they finish eating. The drone comes to them again to pick up the mat.
Now both Robert and Helena are walking in the park to go try something else. As they are walking, Helena hears a weird sudden noise.
“What's that sound?” She asks
“What sound?”
“I don't know. It sounds like a train just passed by.”
“Say that again?” Says Robert while smirking.
“As if a train just passed by.” She says.
While they are walking, Robert sees Reggie, his best friend.
Robert and Reggie meet up.
“What's up, Robert? Man I've been looking for you and searched all of New York to find you, I got really worried, I thought that something terrible happened to you.”
“I'm fine, Reggie. No need to worry.”
Reggie sees the woman who's standing next to Robert and recognizes her as Helena Eagan, the crazy woman who lost her mind and started yelling back at the Gala. Helena recognizes Reggie as the guy who was on the soda drink.
“I forgot to tell you about that! Reggie, This is Helena, I've been hanging out and having fun with her and she seems like a really lovely person overall. Helena, this is Reggie, my best friend.” Robert introduces Reggie to Helena.
“Hi.” Helena says awkwardly to the guy who is on the soda drink.
“Hi.” Says Reggie with an even more awkward tone to the crazy woman from Lumon.
“Now if you'll excuse me?” Says Robert.
“Sure! Sure. Have fun with Helena.” Says Reggie. He walks away from them. Reggie remembers the time when Robert talked about being in love with a woman that he saw. He still can't comprehend that it's Helena Eagan out of all the women in the world, that weird, ugly, annoying chick who is a part of a Large cult disguised as a company.
He feels like his life-long best friend is taken away from him.
But is it out of jealousy? Or maybe he is in danger?