Chapter 42: A Family Visit

As the bus headed to the suburbs of Branton, Rick tried to get his anger under control. Not to suppress it. Just make sure that he used it instead of the other way around.

The idea that Uncle Frank's gift had been stolen by the rest of their family was infuriating, but there was only so much he could do. Technically he had their phone numbers, but he decided not to call them. If things had gone the way he suspected, then it would be better not to give them any warning.

He was fairly certain that the person behind it would be Uncle Alan. After all, he had been the one to go after Rick's parents' Birthright Cores. Had his uncle done this in retaliation for losing them, or just to try to steal whatever he could? Presumably there would be answers soon.

When Rick got off at the last stop, he was still some distance from his family's neighborhood. Though part of him wanted to sprint, Rick made himself walk to stay focused. Whenever the package had arrived, it had been long enough ago that a few extra minutes would make no difference either way. What mattered was that he arrived in a clear state of mind.

Average suburbs gave way to the trailer parks. He felt a brief flicker of nostalgia for the first of them, still the same after all these years. The people in this neighborhood were alright and a few even nodded to him, as if they vaguely recognized him. None of them were rich, but many had painted their trailers, set up flowers, actually worked on the broken cars nearby, and generally still kept trying.

As he walked further, he reached his family's old neighborhood. These trailers were poorly maintained and rusting, TV antennas the closest anyone came to ornamentation. He stepped off the main road onto a dirt one, littered with trash and broken glass. A few people sat outside, drinking shirtless and just staring at him, but he ignored them.

Finally he was within sight of his uncle's trailer. He and several other relatives had pushed all their trailers together for some long past reason that didn't matter anymore. Even the same dog was there, a mangy creature tied to a post. When he approached, it both whimpered and snarled.

Rick walked up to knock on the door, but at that moment several of his cousins slouched around the sides of the trailers. They looked unkempt, but it was an organized movement. All of them were burning with lucrim as well, making it obvious where Uncle Frank's gift had gone.

"We figured you'd come, Dick." One of his cousins taunted him, but Rick ignored him, just looking around at those approaching. Three of his cousins moving in front of him, an aunt and two more cousins now approaching from behind to surround him.

Not thinking about them as family, Rick just counted lucrim generation rates:

[Area Lucrima Analysis:

Opponent A: 12,500

Opponent B: 18,000

Opponent C: 11,000

Opponent D: 27,750

Opponent E: 14,000

Opponent F: 19,250]

"What's the matter, Dick?" A cousin from behind punched at his shoulder, a mockery of the friendly gesture. Rick let the blow bounce off. "Not going to greet your family?"

"You know why I'm here." Not letting them cow him, Rick turned slowly in a circle, looking at all of them. Yes, they knew. "You stole Uncle Frank's gift."

His aunt smacked her lips. "And it tasted good, boy. Thanks to him, we all ate well and we have the strength to win a few more brawls. You can't take that away from us, so what are you going to do?"

"There should have been more: a letter and objects without value. Please give them to me and I'll walk away."

The tallest of his cousins, about his age with 18,000 lucrim, laughed and stepped up to him. "You're gonna walk away no matter what, Dick. Make it easy on yourself and just do it now." When Rick didn't back down, he stepped up so they were eye to eye. "Don't be stupid. We've been spoiling for a fight and we're packing 100,000 lucrim between us."

"No, you're not." What Emily had told him about the limitations of generation rate had never been more obvious to him than in that moment. Over the course of their lives, his family had possessed hundreds of thousands of lucrim, but what had they done with it? They'd let it all run through them like water, spending it on small luxuries. A few of them had cores, but most of them just pooled the lucrim inside their lucrima until they spent it.

"Are you high, Dick?" His aunt came closer, smirking at him. "You went off and acted like you were better than everyone, but what have you made of yourself? Still working at that shitty little gym?"

Rick closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Please give me whatever is left of Uncle Frank's gift. This is the last time I'm asking."

"Ooh! He's asking, boys, because he learned fancy manners in the-"

She cut off as Rick reached back and grabbed her by the head with his left hand. Though his aunt had the strength to resist him, she was taken entirely off guard by the abrupt movement. Before she could recover, he pulled her directly into his elbow as he slammed it into her face.

His aunt dropped like a stone and everyone else stared in shock. Given that she'd held slightly more lucrim than he did, she should have been able to fight him for a long time. But none of that lucrim had been packed into an effective core, rendering her nearly defenseless to his strike, honed by combat in the Underground. It hadn't even been a fight.

And his aunt had been the strongest of them, which was why he'd taken her out first. There were still five of them surrounding him, but that wasn't enough.

One of his cousins let out a yell and struck at him from behind. Predictable. Rick stepped back toward him so his cousin's fist sailed past his head harmlessly, then struck his cousin on the head without even looking. Again, he dropped in a single blow.

Three of the remaining four lunged at him, striking from all sides. Rick simply braced himself to endure the clumsy blows. Compared to the attacks he'd received from so many in the arena, much less Mike and his cronies, these were nothing. With attacks coming from all sides, his efforts to land another decisive blow didn't get through, but he just needed to wait for his moment.

Eventually one of his cousins tried to kick him in the crotch. Rick grabbed her leg in one hand and jerked her off her feet, swinging her directly toward the remaining three. One managed to dodge, but the other two went down, tumbling into the dirt.

The last rose, thinking he'd dodged, but Rick was already there, grabbing him by the front of the shirt. It took surprisingly little strength to fling him to the side, his cousin smashing into one of the trailers so hard that it rocked on its foundations. That left all but one of them down, and though some were conscious, they didn't look like they were going to get up to challenge him again.

What had the last of them been doing? Rick turned to find his tallest cousin grinning savagely as aura rose around him. It was built to create explosive spheres, but what had he been doing all this time? Gradually Rick realized that it had actually taken him this long to gather his aura and prepare for an attack.

"You're gonna regret this, Dick." His cousin smirked and raised his hands to either side, beginning to gather aura spheres. "I'll blast you t-"

Rick used a Bunyan's Step to cross the distance between them in an instant. Before his cousin even realized that he had moved, Rick grabbed both of his wrists. The aura burned, but it was practically tickling compared to what he was used to.

His cousin flinched in shock as he caught up to the movement, his smirk gone. Rick hadn't intended to smirk back, yet he found himself grinning savagely. Panicking, his cousin dropped his aura and tried to struggle away.

Using his wrists, Rick pulled his cousin closer and slammed their foreheads together. His cousin went down hard and lay groaning in the dirt.

After confirming that none of them were coming after him again, Rick stepped over his cousins and reached the door to the main trailer. It was locked, but he snapped the cheap lock and tore open the door.

He entered cautiously, not letting his easy victory get to his head. Though Rick had defeated his Uncle Alan before, his uncle was still more dangerous than all the others put together, thanks to his fighting experience and developed cores. There wasn't much space in the trailer home for an ambush, but he needed to be prepared.

Yet almost immediately he realized that there would be no ambush. His uncle sat in a recliner that looked brand new, eyes bleary and unfocused. Judging from the spoon and syringe on the table, he hadn't invested the money.

When Rick approached him, his uncle flinched. "Boy... you gotta understand... things are rough here..."

"So you spent what you stole on drugs and... a new chair?" As Rick stared at him, his anger faded. Not only did his uncle feel weak and drained, his generation rate had declined to just under 30,000. Clearly the aura leech had not been kind to him.

"Richard... Rick... we just wanted..."

"Shut up." Rick looked around the filthy home for anything that might remain. "Is there anything left?"

Uncle Alan refused to meet his gaze. Of course the money was long gone, and it felt like his aunt and cousins had absorbed all the lucrim that had been sent. But there should still have been the gift for Melissa... surely they couldn't have pawned it so quickly, especially because Uncle Frank would have sent something of more personal value.

Abruptly he saw them: several glass figurines lay broken on the floor. Rick bent down and picked the pieces up, turning them over in his hands. He didn't recognize the figures, but based on the robes they must have been Asian grandmasters. The quality of the work was amazing - exactly the sort of thing Melissa would have loved. She would have known who they were, even broken like this.

"Why?" Anger gone, Rick looked up at his uncle. "What could you possibly gain by breaking them?"

"No... was an accident..." Uncle Alan shook his head blearily, then reached for the syringe. Before he could reach it, Rick grabbed him by the neck and slammed him back into his chair.

"That isn't good enough. If there's something else and you didn't tell me, you'll regret it."

Rick had never threatened someone like that in his life, much less expected it to work. Yet to his surprise, his uncle flinched and shivered, and not from withdrawal. "Please... there was some plant... weird lucrim shit... I ate one of them and I almost died... others are in the kitchen."

Dropping his uncle back into the chair, Rick looked toward the small area they called a kitchen. Yes, there was a box there that looked too good for the house. Before moving to it, he glared back at his uncle. "Pick up every one of the glass pieces and put them back in their box. Unless you already destroyed the box too, somehow."

When Rick approached the box in the kitchen he was afraid that it would be empty, but he found that his uncle had told the truth. The interior was spaced into four different sections, each of which had held a dried black root. Rick didn't recognize them, but his uncle had implied that they were for lucrim development. One of the roots was gone, but he still had three. That would have to be enough.

Turning back, Rick discovered that his order had been obeyed. Uncle Alan fumbled the glass pieces a few times, but put them all into a box. It still had a few shreds of tape and wrapping paper, remnants of the gift for Melissa that it should have been.

"Thank you." Rick spoke the words as coldly as he could and was gratified when his uncle flinched. "You are going to change the family channel to redirect to my apartment. When I check tomorrow, it better be done."

With that, he took both boxes and walked out the door. No one moved to stop him.