Once it was 4 p,m, Ravi was up and out of the car. Lisa laughed, her voice ringing like bells behind him, "Couldn't you wait a minute more, Ravi?"
Why? "Goodbye, Lisa." He said and she laughed.
They had been partners for two years and never had he worked past 4 pm, it did not matter whether they were chasing down a robber, once it was 4 pm., he would stop in his tracks, turn, and go home. Lisa was used to this so she just waved him off.
"Bring my strawberries on Monday or I would not let you go."
Ravi heard, maybe he should bring a small pack of strawberries but he clenched his fist, he had always had a problem with sharing. Maybe ten, eight, or perhaps six strawberries? Surely he had managed that.
He crossed the road and headed down through the backstreet, arriving at the Paperline Industry Residential area. Tall buildings of more than fifteen stories lined the road. Maybe, a long time ago, this place was the cream of the crop[ of Davenport but after the Nest in Harlan, the Ciceroni Paperline industry shut down and the maintenance of the Residential Area was left to the dogs.
These four buildings were still manageable, at least the small hint of blue paint remained on their outer layer, and further down the road it got worse.
Reconstructing, Revitalizing, every new Mayor probably had something to say about the Paperline Area but nothing was really done. Hundreds of people lived in those flats and they were not prepared to move.
Ravi walked down quietly, attracting attention as he did but none of them approached him. Residents of these kinds of places always keep to themselves. The road grew more quiet as he traveled and soon, Ravi stopped at an abandoned building.
Ravi walked closer to it and the moment he entered the shadows of the tall gate, his entire body shattered.
Then, in an instant, behind the restroom of the Closed-door Excel's girls boarding school, the air seemed to implode, collapsing upon an unseen singularity. A burst of light erupted as Ravi's atomic essence was reconstructed.
The Electronic Plaza was on the other side of the town, much closer to Harlan, Ravi did not want to use a taxi and he could only resort to such measures.
It was not the only reason that Ravi had to be so careful.
With great power comes great responsibility, the Waspman movie motto was literally the slogan of Avalon. Every Esper needed to be registered and most of the time, there would be a government-assigned duty for them.
The only way to avoid this was to join the League of Heroes or go rogue. Rogues Espers were not treated favorably, they had three routes, be a petty villain, join the Azure Mafia, or lie low so that they would never be caught.
Ravi was registered under the Brusille State Authority, that was the place he had woken up and the ability that he had registered was Self-healing, which was almost useless to them, especially when he had scored so horrendously low on his physical and mental test.
Lying when registering was two years in prison, Ravi had a beautiful house so he could afford to move, he could only go the extra mile to make sure that he would not be caught.
Ten minutes later, Zane was in the Electronic Plaza.
"Officer, What do you want to buy? We have the latest X-phone and X-pod. 20% off." A woman shouted at him as he passed by her stall. It was rowdy, so different from the Stores in the Central Area District but everything here was far cheaper.
"Mark!" Ravi's voice was slightly cold with a sharp quality to it, it was a voice that let everyone know that the owner was not in the mood to exchange pleasantries.
Matt's store was small, barely the size of Ravi's bathroom with electronic devices scattered everywhere.
"Officer West!" He greeted me and stood up. He was a short man, of about 5 '1 with a red ponytail that he maintained with what Ravi was sure was half of his proceeds from his business. It was luscious and looked soft and silky, it reminded Ravi of the Captain's hair, blond, almost golden, looking like it had never been touched by a shampoo worth less than 500 dollars.
Mark picked his laptop up from the bundles of laptops, he picked one up. It was a sleek black laptop with the letter X logo. He had gotten it two years ago and it had cost him a little over 2000 dollars which was more than two months of his salary. He had to forgo buying premium meat at the Grocery store for more than four months.
And yet, the 2000-dollar laptop decided to go on a breakdown spiral this year. It was just 2 years old, too young for a mid-life crisis, such things should be left for him.
"I added some movies and music for you." Mark was happy to point out what he had done. Ravi just looked at the laptop and accepted, he had not been one to watch the kind of movies that he was sure that Mark was talking about. Those Action movies that people felt that men should automatically be interested in. He already lived it while he should have watched it.
"The three-month warranty?" He reminded the other and watched as his face paled slightly.
Mark's gaze went down, Ravi was confused for a while before he realized that standing at the gun fastened to his waist. Ravi almost chuckled, that gun was the least threatening thing about him.
"Fine!" Mark said, his very tone was filled with reluctance and he produced the white sheet for Ravi to sign.
Ravi bent down and signed the document with a flourish. He slipped some bills on the table, it was in notes of twenty and the man took it and raised it to the light on the ceiling.
"Thank you! I hope to see you again."
"I hope that you do not.": Was he cursing him? Ravi headed for the Closed door of Excel's girls' boarding school, he disappeared and appeared in his alley in Harlan.
A few birds were chirping and Ravi continued the walk home. He stopped at the beautiful blue gate and paused, this shade of blue. His lips thinned and he took out the key to open the gate and entered inside.
The scent of blooming flowers enveloped him, each step on the cobblestone path sent a faint crunch beneath his shoes. Ravi's lips twitched in a faint smile, he was home.