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Bully

A Story Of The Korps

5386 words

Edit – corrected typos, additional material -- 27NO2024

D’Otter

Email: dotter8@gmail.com

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CONTENT WARNING: homophobia, transphobia, obscene language, mild violence

“Hey, faggot!”

The young beaver boy hurried in front of Bobby while he was walking out of of the corner grocery, not letting him get clear enough for the sliding doors to close. He stood nearly face-to-face with the bunny, sneering.

“Good for you,” Bobby replied, as he moved aside. “It’s not easy to admit...”

“Admit you’re a faggot!” the beaver boy insisted and stepped far enough to Bobby’s side to stop him again from clearing the door.

“Yeah,” Bobby replied. “And?”

“Go kill yourself!” the beaver boy commanded, still sneering. “Nobody wants you!”

Bobby tried to duck to the other side, but the beaver boy stepped in front of him again, even closer this time.

“Go kill yourself, ya fuckin’ faggot!”

Bobby gave the kid a serious glower. He shifted the grocery bag in his left hand to his right. “Not just a fag,” he said, as he flashed the inside of his left lapel at the beaver boy, showing off his Korps insignia.

“You got a fag sign on your coat an’ you’re a faggot! So go kill yourself!”

Bobby quickly checked over his shoulder, but nobody was waiting to use the door. He heaved a big sigh.

“Sit down,” he said.

“Faggot tellin’ me siddown?”

“Sit down right here on the sidewalk, right now.”

“Faggot tellin’ me...”

“Because you’re going to sit down whether you want to or not,” Bobby cut him off, “In three, two, one...”

“Fuck ooooo-uuuuuh...”

Bobby blinked. The beaver boy collapsed towards him, but something shoved him back onto his big, flat tail. He landed heavily. Bobby shifted his two bags into his left hand and stepped around the boy.

“The fuck, fuckin’ aaa-aaaaahh!!!”

The boy screamed, his mouth wide, his pupils dilated. He said nothing more, just groaned. Bobby grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and lifted. The boy’s broad tail flipped down between his legs. Bobby dragged him along the sidewalk to a less conspicuous corner of the grocery store and leaned him against a glass wall. He carefully arranged the boy’s legs to keep him in place and his hands in his lap.

“Don’t be scared,” Bobby said. “No, actually, be scared, but like not for your life. I only bruised your spinal cord a little bit, you’ll get your arms and legs back. Everyone else I’ve done this to has. Oh, and your facial nerve to shut you up, your mouth will come back too, in a while. Now, let’s see who we have here...”

Bobby set down his two grocery bags. He held a hand above the boy and waved it slowly. The boy grunted wordlessly as he felt the touch all over his body.

“There we are,” said Bobby and he gestured.

The boy leaned to one side. His wallet slipped out of his rear pocket and flew into Bobby’s hand. Bobby knelt beside the boy and opened it as his victim growled.

“I don’t want your money,” Bobby said, condescendingly. He pulled a student card out of the wallet and held it for the boy to see. “I want your identity!” He held the card edgewise between his fingers and aimed his watch at it. “Rose, copy this, please.”

“The photo appears to be slightly raised,” Rose said in his earbuds. “Hold it up to the sun so I can take a multispectral image.”

Bobby did so and aimed the watch at it again.

“There is a different image under the photo of his face,” Rose said. “This card is altered, it could be stolen.”

“So you’re not Leon Hull,” Bobby said, glancing at the card as he stashed it in his pocket. “I’ll remove the sticker and send this to... Richview Collegiate! I’ve heard about your school. Nothing good. Ah, there’s another card in the billfold. Rose, is this one good?”

He held it up to the sun and aimed his watch. Rose told him it was legitimate. He put the card back where he’d found it.

“So! Norton Roberts.” He searched again, found a health card and held it for Rose to copy. “Norton Edgar Hadley Roberts. I bet you tell people to call you Eddy.” Bobby had Rose copy Eddy’s health card. He found a bank card and Rose copied that, too.

“A credit card?” he muttered, as he pulled it out. “Betty Roberts! Who’s that, your mom?” He aimed his watch at it.

“It is his mother’s,” Rose said. “It’s been reported missing.”

“Your mom reported this stolen,” he told Eddy. “Better not use it.” He looked again, but found no more ID cards. “You should get a provincial ID,” he said. “Twenty, thirty, thirty-five bucks.” He slid the wallet into the neck hole of Eddy’s tee shirt. “Not worth stealing anyway. But I don’t care about your money. I do care,” he said, as he pulled Eddy’s cell phone out of his jacket pocket, “about this!”

Bobby took Eddy’s hand and pressed his thumb against the phone’s fingerprint sensor. It unlocked and Bobby held it near his watch. Rose confirmed that she was copying its contents. Bobby looked down at Eddy; the beaver boy’s head raised and looked back.

“Now,” said Bobby, “what have we learned today?” Eddy growled. “Oh, that’s right, you can’t talk. Well, there’s two things...” He paused and scowled. “There’s three things I want you to take away from this experience. First, you think you’re better than people you don’t like, so you assume they’re helpless against you. You just have to stay in their faces and tell them what you think of them. After you make them suffer for a while, they’ll do whatever to get rid of you and you win. I guess you’ve been lucky so far. But today you learned that some of the people you don’t like have superpowers, like my telekinesis, that you can’t even understand. And some of the people you don’t like are willing to use their powers to defend themselves. You’re lucky you learned your lesson from me, because I know how to defend myself without doing permanent harm. I could very easily have killed you. And you’ll never know which of the people you don’t like have powers until you try to bully the wrong faggot!

“Which brings me to number two!” Bobby opened the lapel of his coat and held his Korps insignia close to Eddy’s face. “I want you to take a good, long, close look at this symbol,” he said. “A winged double helix in purple. This is the symbol of The Korps! You know, the terrorists. We abduct people, rob banks and insurance companies, regularly win fights with cops and heroes. That Korps. I showed you this to warn you that you were fucking with the wrong faggot.” Bobby closed his lapel and leaned in on Eddy. “But no, you thought you could push me around because you think I’m just a fag. I really am, by the way. And now here you are, no arms, no legs, no mouth, literally at my mercy. I could do anything to you! But I made my point and actually doing anything to you would be more trouble than it’s worth. This time. If you’re smart, don’t let there be a next time!

“Now there was something else, what was it?”

“I’ve finished copying Eddy’s phone,” Rose said in Bobby’s earbuds.

“Oh yeah!” Bobby said, with a grin, as he put Eddy’s phone back in his jacket pocket. “You’ve attracted the attention of The Korps. We know who you are and before you get home, we’ll know everything about you. We’ll be watching! What we want is for you to stop being a bully. We don’t care what you do instead, but stop bullying. If you don’t stop, we’ll know and we’ll make you sorry. Understand?”

Eddy gave a frustrated growl. Bobby stood and picked up his groceries.

“Okay, my milk’s getting warm, I’ve wasted enough time on you. The slight bruises I gave your nerves will wear off in a half-hour to an hour. Keep fighting the paralysis and it might go away sooner. But you won’t be getting back in my face again today. If you’re smart, you’ll stay the fuck away from me. The Korps doesn’t give third chances.”

And with that, Bobby walked away, whistling “La Marseillaise” between his teeth. Eddy sat and moaned plaintively.

A soft pinging in Bobby’s ear brought his attention to Rose in his watch. She was wagging a finger at him.

“You enjoyed that,” she accused.

Bobby chuckled. “This makes up for every time I wanted to use my power against a bully in high school, but didn’t dare give myself away!”

#

Bobby spotted the three kids standing by the milk aisle as he entered the corner store. Eddy was one of them; he had a deer with him and a brown bear, both of whom wore perpetual sneers as their rest faces. Bobby lowered his long bunny ears to his shoulders and took a back aisle to the fish display. He managed to grab what he needed from the veggie rack, too without them spotting him. But they picked him up at the check-out counter.

“Hey fag!” the deer yelled.

“Congratulations!” Bobby replied over his shoulder. “It’s not easy these days admitting you’re queer...”

“I’m talkin’ to you, fag!”

“Visa, please,” Bobby told the counter clerk. “Then why did you claim to be a fag?”

“I said you’re a fag!”

“What a stupid lil’ fag,” the bear added.

“Hey! Don’t call your friend stupid!”

The counter clerk put Bobby’s receipt in his bag. “Is there gonna be trouble?” he asked.

“I’ll try to get them to move it outside,” Bobby replied, “but they seem pretty set on humiliating me in front of you.”

“I’m calling the cops.”

“You better call them for him!” Eddy yelled. “He’s a Korps Fag!”

“Yeah,” the deer added. “He’s a fuckin’ terrorist!”

“Grab his lapel!” the bear yelled. “He’s got a Korps thing under it!”

“Are you Korps?” the clerk said, as the kids ringed Bobby in.

“No,” Bobby replied. “And if I’m not a Korps agent, that’s what I’d say. ‘Course it’s also what I’d say if I was.”

“Grab his lapels!” Eddy yelled.

“Maybe I just support them.”

“He got powers!”

“Lots of people do. Look,” he told the clerk. “Is my money good? Am I a regular here? Do I make trouble?”

“Yes, yes and never.”

“Then why do you care?”

“I don’t, but I gotta do something about those kids, they are makin’ trouble.”

“Allow me,” Bobby replied.

He crouched down, then straightened suddenly and leapt, bag in hand, straight up and over the deer, patting his short antlers as he went, (and just missing the ceiling.) He got to the door in one hop, waved back as it slid open, strolled out, turned and hopped away.

It took the kids a few seconds to realize they’d been outmanoeuvred. They chased after Bobby, but he already had a solid head start. They spotted him waving at the corner before he started bounding down Islington towards the subway station. The three kids chased after him doggedly. They saw him hopping at improbable speed towards the traffic tunnel under the railroad tracks. But then they saw him stop and wait for them beside a set of narrow stairs that lead up to a parking lot. He waved his short tail at them as they approached. Then he turned and hopped up the stairs. By the time they reached the bottom, he was standing at the top, leaning on the hand rail, his other hand defiantly on his hip, (his groceries out of sight.)

“Eddy!” he yelled down. “Get your ass up here! You other two can fuck off!”

“Get... yer... fuckin’ fag... ass down...” the deer panted. “Gonna talk t’ ya...”

“Yeah, ge’down...” the bear added, panting just as hard.

“Eddy, you heard me! Tell your friends to fuck off so they don’t get hurt!”

“Fuckin’! Faggot!” Eddy panted. “Toldja! Getcher! Fuckin’! Ass! Down!”

Bobby chuckled and slipped on his rose coloured visor. He descended the stairs slowly, hips swaying with every step, shaking his head sadly. “You three little kids are the kind of sad losers,” he said, “who just have to piss on the electric fence, aren’t you. How can I only be five years older than you?”

“You’re a terrorist!” the bear said.

“And you’re a fuckin’ fag!” the deer added.

“We’re gonna call the cops ‘n let ‘em beat you up!” Eddy declared. “We’re gonna tell ‘em you’re a Korps fag!”

“We got powers too,” the deer said. “We’re registered with Psi Canada!”

“No you’re not,” Bobby replied. “As soon as you started planning to say that, we checked. You’re not registered with PsiCan and superpowers don’t run in any of your families.”

“We...” the deer said.

“What?” Eddy cried.

“I told you Eddy, we’re watching you. No, wait, wait! You think there were no cameras or microphones where you were talking, right?”

“There were no cameras!” the bear said. “I saw them, there weren’t any!”

Bobby chuckled again. “Tony,” he said to the bear. “Nelson,” he said to the deer. “Last chance. Fuck off. Now. Not you, Eddy.”

“What if we don’t...” Nelson started. Then he fainted.

Tony tried to catch him as he fell. “What did you...” he started, then fainted himself.

“What did you do?” Eddy cried.

“I pinched their carotid arteries until they fainted,” Bobby replied. “I would have bruised their spinal cords the way I did yours, but if they really do have powers they’d still be able to use them against me. So just in case, I did it this way. It probably damaged their brains a little, but they weren’t using them anyway. Now then, you!”

Bobby held out his left hand, fingers together and vertical, thumb extended.

“That’s your fag sign!” Eddy sneered, uncertainly.

Bobby slowly closed his hand into a fist. As he did, Eddy started to gasp and gag and choke, his head forced up, his eyes wide.

“I find your lack of common sense... disturbing,” Bobby said. “I told you to let your friends fuck off and get your ass up these stairs. Now get your ass up these stairs!”

Bobby started climbing. Eddy was pulled along behind him, still choking, half-dragged. When they finally reached the top of the long staircase, he fell to his knees, gasping desperately.

“Don’t block the top of the stairs!” Bobby exclaimed. He grabbed the back of Eddy’s jacket collar and hauled him to one side, plopping him down beside his bag of groceries. His invisible grip shifted from Eddy’s throat to his tee shirt collar. The beaver gasped and panted.

“What did I tell you about staying out of my face?” Bobby demanded.

“You... can’t...”

“Oh em gee, you’re obtuse! I just did! I still am!

“What the fuck is with you, Eddy? I’m a trained, professional terrorist in an organization even the cops are scared of! I have superpowers! I’ve used them on you! But you think you, a fourteen year old kid in grade nine, can intimidate me? What fucking drugs are you on?

“I’m not fucking with you, Eddy! I want to know why you keep getting in my face! Explain!”

“I don’t have to...”

Suddenly, Eddy felt his head caught in a grip like an invisible vice. Bobby’s open right hand came straight through the force that held him. His cheek took the full slap, unable to turn with it.

“Yes, Eddy, you do have to. Explain!”

“I hate fuckin’ fags!” Eddy screamed.

“Then don’t fuck fags!” Bobby screamed back. “Sorry,” he added, “that was reflex. Besides, who are you kidding, you’re a virgin.” He glared at Eddy for a few seconds, then shook his head. “Naw. Prejudice, arrogance, that doesn’t explain why you’d try to bully somebody you know can hurt you and won’t be scared. Come on, Eddy, spill the tea already! Why are you trying to bully me?”

“Not gonna let a fag push me around!”

“You’re trying to push me around! I’m pushing back! And I push harder, just stop!”

Eddy glared furiously at Bobby. Bobby glared coldly back. For nearly a minute, neither of them moved. At last, Bobby shook his head again.

“Won’t tell me or can’t tell me,” he said, as he removed his pink visor. “Okay, time for a rose coloured interrogation.”

“What’re ya gonna do?”

“You can’t hide anything from Rose. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt. Much.”

Eddy tried to wriggle free of the force holding his head. He raised his hands to push the visor away. The invisible force grabbed his wrists instead and held them together behind his back. Bobby grabbed the top of Eddy’s head with one hand, slipped the visor over his eyes with the other. Eddy cried out for help just once before his face went blank. Bobby looked at his watch. Rose looked back from its face, holding up one finger. Eddy started to moan and cry.

“No!” Eddy sobbed. “I’m not a tranny! I’m not a tranny! I hate trannies!”

“Eddy is a girl,” said Rose.

“That explains it!” Bobby replied. “He’ll... Sorry, she’ll never get help with her gender identity with a Conservative government in power. This explains everything!” he told Eddy. “You believed that a Korps agent could make you face the truth about yourself and help you deal with it. Rose?”

“In a nutshell,” Rose replied.

“Well you’re right, I do care and I can help. But how can you not know you’re a girl?”

“She knows,” Rose replied. “Her problem is transphobia and it’s making her neurotic.”

“Oh em gee!” Bobby exclaimed. “You poor kid!” Bobby knelt and took Eddy into his arms. “Even if you’re like the assholes who made my life miserable from jay kay to twelve, I still wouldn’t wish this on you!”

“Leggo of me!” Eddy sobbed. “I’m not a fuckin’ trannie! You’re a liar! You can’t make me be a girl, leggo!”

“Nope! Not gonna let go until you’re through crying. And Rose speaks only the truth...”

“Fuckin’ liar!”

“She sees inside your head. If she sees a girl, you’re a girl. Now hush.” Bobby held Eddy close and petted her ear and cheek. “Cry on my shoulder, Eddy. You should never have to cry alone.”

Eddy cuddled into Bobby’s arms. She nuzzled her face under Bobby’s chin, sobbing frantically. Bobby couldn’t see Rose, but heard her purring in his earbuds and guessed that she was hugging Eddy, too. They negotiated space for her in the embrace.

“Eddy,” said Rose, “please listen to me closely. You are a girl...”

“NO!”

“...because the reticular formation in your brain is closer to that of a girl’s than a boy’s. Actually, it’s within the range of a stereotypical girl...”

“NO! I WON’T!”

“Right now there’s nothing The Korps can do about it because you’re underage. And I’ve observed your parents enough to know that they’d never permit us to help. Bobby, I believe they’re the source of Eddy’s transphobia and homophobia.”

“...never asked you...” Eddy whimpered.

“In four years you’ll be able to decide for yourself. We can change your body to suit your brain, or we can change your brain to suit your body, whichever you prefer. But I’ll warn you now that changing your body to suit your brain is by far the easier and safer route. The Empire Enhancements locations in our hidden bases have done it many, many times. You can choose exactly the look you want. If you join The Korps, in your case in a non-agent position, you can even change your look again later. It’s actually quite easy.

“And please understand this. We can make you completely biologically female. You would look exactly like a beaver girl, you could even make babies. The only difference would be your XY chromosomes and we’re working on that. But if you don’t need to go all the way, we can do less. Maybe you need a girl’s body, but with a penis; we can do that. Maybe you need your current body but with a fuckable vagina; we can do that. Maybe you just need breasts, or to have your curves shifted so that you look great in girl’s clothes; we can do that. Maybe you need just your face and voice feminized. Eddy, if all you need to feel comfortable in your own skin is for us to flip the gender of every record in every database that has you in it, even secret ones, even paper ones, so that despite your appearance, nobody would have any proof that you were ever anything but a girl, we can do that. We just want you to feel comfortable with yourself. That’s what The Korps wants for everyone!

“Changing the reticular formation in your brain from female to male is also possible, but it’s a very dangerous operation and quite tricky, even for Korps medicine. If anything goes wrong, you could end up with no gender or an unpredictable gender. You could go into a permanent coma and never wake up or never be able to sleep again and eventually die from dementia. You could lose the ability to ignore unimportant background noises and things or not be able to pay attention to anything. You could lose your hearing. Worse still, your reticular formation is in your brainstem. Damage there could cause partial or total paralysis, you wouldn’t even be able to breathe. And those are just the worst case scenarios.”

“Better dead than a trannie!” Eddy moaned.

Bobby held up his watch. He and Rose looked at each other. Rose shook her holographic head and looked back to Eddy.

“You’re thinking about killing yourself,” she said. “Please stop.”

Bobby put his watch arm back around Eddy and held her even tighter.

“Don’t even think of that!” he said. “You’re upset now, I don’t blame you, but suicide is a one-way trip to nowhere. Whatever’s wrong, I mean besides being a girl, we can help you!”

“You want to make me be a girl because they made you be a girl.”

“What? Me? I’m not a girl! I’m a hundred percent cis-male, aren’t I Rose?”

“Um, one hundred percent might be…”

“I’m gay and femmy and I love myself, now that nobody is trying to make me be ashamed. That’s what The Korps is all about, Eddy. We want everybody to be comfortable just being their truest, most authentic selves. That means you, too! That’s why we fight bullies.”

“You fight the police, and heroes.”

Bobby nodded. “Bullies,” he said.

“You hurt businesses.”

“Big businesses, when they act like bullies.”

“You kidnap people.”

“Not exactly. Sometimes we abduct people and interrogate them, like you. Sometimes we rescue people from bad situations. Sometimes we ask for ransom, but usually we just let them go. Eddy, we’re the bad guys because the good guys are corrupted by their own power. We want The Overlord to rule the world because he’s the only person in the world who has a chance of not letting power corrupt him. Do you understand?”

“You’re a bully.”

“I… What?”

“You act just like me.”

“You did hit her,” Rose said. “You are pushing her around and treating her like an inferior, worthy of abuse.”

“I…” Bobby pulled away from Eddy. Her expression was angry, offended. He could imagine that expression on his own face; his smile wilted. But his frown hardened.

“I treated you the way you tried to treat me. And I’m sure you’ve treated others the way you tried to treat me. How do you like it?”

“You’re no better than me,” Eddy grumbled.

“When I have to. I’m a dangerous villain, kid. And you’re a fool to treat me otherwise. You’re lucky I was only playing with you. I’ve been trying to get you to realize that all along.

“But we’re not lying to you, Eddy! You’re a girl. And that’s okay…”

Bobby’s ear turned towards a tiny sound off to one side. But he didn’t look, because there was another sound coming from the other way, from the stairs. And a moment later, there were two faces imitating Kilroy from the stairwell.

“He’s your girlfriend!” Tony sneered.

“Speaking of fools…” Bobby muttered.

“I’m lookin’ at fools!” Tony said, as he and Nelson sidled up the last few stairs.

“I’m lookin’ at fags!” Nelson sneered.

“...they haven’t figured it out either,” Bobby said.

But Bobby noticed that they were acting oddly. They were looking in any direction except the way they were going. That was the direction the first tiny sound had come from. And now that he thought of it, he wasn’t looking in that direction either. Now the bear and deer boys were standing over him and Eddy at the top of the stairs, still looking anywhere but the way they’d been going and Bobby couldn’t look at them.

“I won’t let you hurt Eddy,” Bobby said.

“We called the cops!” Tony jeered. “They’re gonna come ‘n arrest you ‘n beat you up! They said we could watch!”

“There have been no 911 calls from this area in the past day,” Rose said. “No calls at all from their phones.”

“Okay, that’s enough!” said a familiar lutrine voice, but Bobby still couldn’t make himself look towards it.

And then he could. Nelson’s and Tony’s sides were wrapped in electric blue funnels. They cried out as if they’d been zapped with a taser. They collapsed to their knees. Behind them, Olivia in her villain costume stood with the forefingers of both hands pointed at them, her eyes softly glowing. She playfully blew imaginary smoke from the barrel of one finger. Tommy, (also in costume), moved out from behind her. He grabbed Nelson and Tony by the backs of their collars.

“Vector,” he said, “put yer RCGs on these guys, let’s see what makes ‘em tick.”

“Yes sir!” Bobby said, grinning. He took the pink visor from Eddy’s face. “Rose will probably want to talk to you again before you go,” he said.

Bobby stood and approached Tony. Tommy gave them both a little shake.

“Now you two lil’ cum wads ain’t gonna make trouble,” Tommy growled, “are ya?”

Tony kept entirely still as Bobby slipped his RCGs over the bear cub’s eyes. He looked at his watch. Rose was holding up a finger.

“Common bully,” she said. “Arrogant, self-important, entitled. Let him get fired for incompetence from a couple of part time jobs, he’ll figure himself out. Next?” Rose took a moment with Nelson. “Oh dear!” she said. “This one’s trouble. Arrogant, violent, poor sense of empathy. Boarder line psychopath. It takes a lot just to get him to realize he’s supposed to have sympathy. He really should have counseling, but I don’t have time or resources. Bobby, you can have your RCGs back now.”

Bobby reclaimed his visor. Tommy lifted Nelson and Tony over the steps.

“You two lil’ cum wads ‘r gonna go down those stairs,” he growled. “Feet first or head first. What d’ya want?”

“Put me down!” Nelson ordered.

“Okay, you’re rude, you’re ugly ‘n you’re too stupid to know when yer in trouble. Don’t say I never offered you a choice!”

Tommy gave Nelson and Tony a little toss. They landed several steps down, flailing and grasping. Tony managed to grab the handrail. Nelson grabbed Tony. They looked back up and saw the big badger climbing down towards them, teeth bared, slamming his fist into his palm. Tony grabbed Nelson’s arm and pulled him down the stairs. At the sidewalk below, Nelson turned back.

“Hey, trannie!” he yelled up. “Yer gonna be late for class!” and he ran away, laughing, Tony close behind.

Tommy climbed back up, brushing imaginary dust from his hands. “See?” he said. “That’s the way you do it.”

“I’m arranging for an autocab right now,” Rose said. “Eddy can’t hear me anymore,” she added.

Bobby relaid the news. “And I’m sorry for hitting you,” he added. “I needed you to understand that I’m, well… I…”

“You hate me.”

“...I… No! I was frustrated because you weren’t taking me seriously. But I can’t even hate you, even though you were being a bully, even though I hate bullies, because I’m so far beyond that now! I’m powerful! I have friends and lovers and they’re powerful! Everyone I know and care about is powerful, except… Well…

“I mean, you were a bully, but you weren’t even a threat to me. Now you’re a kid who needs my help. D’you see?”

“I guess so.”

“Here’s your cab. That’s Rose on your phone, she wants to tell you something.”

Eddy took her phone from her jacket pocket. It started ringing.

“Eddy,” said Rose, “you’re going to have a lucid dream tonight. That means you’ll know it’s a dream. I don’t know who you’ll meet, but she will have something important to tell you about yourself. If you want it, she will start you on a path to understand yourself better. Oh, and don’t worry about the autocab, I’m paying for it. I might call you again, if you need it. Bye for now!” and she hung up.

Eddy put her phone away. Olivia held the cab door for her. She stopped before she got in.

“You’re Agent Tap,” Eddy said.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me…”

“You saved that hero that one time.”

“Oh, yeah, Victoria, she…”

“Can I have your autograph?”

Olivia’s jaw dropped. “...AU-autograph?” she said.

#

Epilogue

“Dear Ms. Muntz,” the letter read. “My name is the Rose Coloured Glasses Operating System Experience, (ROSE for short.) I link and serve agents of The Korps, (the terrorist organization), through our infamous RCGs and perform minor tasks for them such as writing this letter.

“I am writing to inform you that your son, Nelson, tried to help a friend to bully one of our agents a few days ago. After they immobilized your son, they put me on his head to find out why he would do such a foolhardy thing. What I found was disturbing.

“You and your husband would be happy to know that Nelson is a typical, cis-gendered, heterosexual boy. However, he has a severe lack of empathy. This is a neurological condition, not psychological. It was probably not caused by anything that you or your husband did or said to him. Nevertheless, without special counseling and training, Nelson could become Narcissistic, Machiavellian or even Psychopathic. He would then be a danger to your family and your community.

“Attached you will find a list of traits associated with people like your son. I have taken the liberty of ticking boxes for behaviors that I have observed Nelson doing. Feel free to tick boxes for behaviors that I missed. Take the list to your family doctor (Dr Roberts) and discuss them with him. Ask him to recommend Nelson for assessment and treatment. Your doctor will know what to do.

“If Nelson continues on his present path, The Korps might abduct him and turn him into one of our depersonalized drones for the public good. However, with the special counseling and training that your doctor can obtain for Nelson, he could still grow up to be a productive member of society.

“I regret having to be the bearer of bad news.

“On behalf of The Korps,” and the letter was signed “Rose” in a font that resembled fancy handwriting. There was no return address, just a purple winged double helix.

###

This story and all the characters in it are copyright © 2024 by D’Otter, except as follows.

ROSE, Karen and The Korps universe belong to Karen King (@kraken) and are used by general permission.

My own characters are available for use by other writers in the Korps Extended Universe, (and Kraken if she likes.) Just please ask first. Character sheets are available.

This is a work of fan fiction based on the works of Karen King. It should not be taken as canonical to those works, (unless she says otherwise.)