Chapter 18 – Arwain and Unwanted Fame

Arwain let out a deep breath. He scanned the surroundings through a brand-new HUD that felt far more fluid than the one he used before. A stream of calculated trajectories from the on-board AI showed detail with higher granularity, enough so that it made his head spin trying to keep up.

Other than that, he felt great.

“This is Arwain Riot of Silver Stream. Approaching the Icarus bomb and preparing to transport.”

The digital display of a timer ticking down came into view, stashed under a bench in one busy corner of a park. A warning fired off to interrupt the normally busy skyways around the spot, telling everyone to steer clear.

Arwain smirked. There was a full ten minutes for him take care of business. He had to hand it to the city for finding a way to track the outdated workings of these bombs. With a scoop and a tuck, a jet of compressed air sent Arwain soaring through the sky, faster than he had ever managed before.

He could feel the extra drag against his cheeks. Yet, his body felt even lighter than before due to the upgraded material that let him slip into turbulent currents to reduce air friction. The new sensations made his heart giddy as he leaned even harder into speed, exiting the city in a matter of minutes.

Attaching a miniature rocket that locked onto a disposal site, Arwain slapped the bomb onto it and watched it sail toward its target before a purple glow expanded in a flash.

He was never gladder to have taken Mayor DeWine’s offer, celebrating with a fist pump in the air before gliding back toward the city.

“Arwain, here. Bomb #4 for me has been disposed of. How’s the rest of the crew doing, Jolly?”

“Jester and Queen have each discovered and safely detonated three bombs each. Sarge another two. Dingleberry located two which he brought back to HQ for the cannon send off. All remotely triggered bombs have been disposed of by other teams in the meantime. Looks like we are in the clear.”

“I’m loving how these new suits feel and run. Who says working for the government didn’t have its perks?”

After Arwain huddled with his team members, they all agreed that there were no drawbacks to having the city endorse their work publicly. It would give their small company an edge over the major delivery services.

“I dunno… my parents have always believed that the government acts a little shady. That or cheapskates. Imagine a city in peril and only having a couple of cutting-edge response gear to combat it. And then, giving it to a bunch of nobodies like us.”

Though Silver Stream didn’t know until they accepted, Mayor DeWine had a gift to go along with the prestige. The city’s team of researchers had started to dissect the Icarus virus that disrupted the mechanical components in wing tech, developing a limited firewall to block its effects. They could breathe a little easier if one exploded in their vicinity.

Unfortunately, they had only managed to craft five suits so far, making it likely that Silver Stream’s small roster was the perfect guinea pig to test out their effectiveness.

“Aww, don’t be like that. The guy was nice enough to even give HQ a facelift. Don’t you have a fancy dashboard to play around with now? You can even see biometrics for live feedback on any of us running into trouble.”

“Yes, yes. If you so much as fart, I bet it’ll analyze what you had for dinner last.”

Arwain crinkled his nose. His buttocks clenched at the thought of that.

“I’m joking, dum-dum. You’d win the Ignoble Award if you wasted the time to care about that with this ongoing crisis.”

Arwain chuckled at being gullible enough to believe it. No matter the time period, mankind’s propensity to come up with the dumbest science couldn’t be underestimated. After all, the inventor of wing technology had started his research off with spider-like appendages for the disabled. As much as it was a noble endeavor, the aesthetics of a man-spider crawling across the ground left much to please.

“That point aside, have a look at this.”

A window popped up in the corner of Arwain’s HUD. It was zooming in and out on someone’s butt. A pair of wings flapped, making it clear that it was mid-flight.

“Hey, wait. I know that ass!”

Arwain whirled around to spot a drone tailing him. Checking to make sure, he sent it a wave. The person on camera waved at the same time. It seemed that his activities were being recorded, likely to collect data for the new suits in action.

Since he was amused by that fact, he did a celebratory dance to commemorate his first successful day as a champion with no problems. To onlookers, it was like he had scored a touchdown in American football, waving his legs and wings in sync like he was moonwalking with an imaginary bomb tucked under one arm. A few seconds later, he spiked the bomb downwards before doing a backflip with his tongue hanging out.

“Umm, Arwain.”

“What’s up, Jolly? Can’t you see I’m admiring my form on camera?”

“This is a live feed across the city.”

“Wha?!”

Somehow, Arwain managed to trip over nothing as he tumbled head over heels into a downward spin for the public to see.

v

“Ughhhhh, what the hell was I thinking?”

A hand stroked the back of Arwain’s head, which was currently resting on the dinner table at HQ. His eyes held a wistful regret of being steamrolled in the second half after dominating the first one.

“Don’t worry, people don’t mind cheering for the goofball. If anything, that’s one of your strong points.”

Queen held back a chuckle, trying not to hit replay again of the footage before her. But after adding some funny filters to edit Arwain’s little dance, she secretly uploaded it to Truesky social.

“One who seeks to become famous can’t be afraid of stumbles, self-made or otherwise,” Jester commented, a grin of amusement upon his face. “Oh look, ‘Arwain Riot? More like Arwain idiot!’ is trending.”

A pair of wings twitched like a chicken after its head was cut off. The despair of having it all flip upside down, with even friends turning on him, sucked the last bit of motivation from him.

“It’s not all bad though,” Jolly interjected at that moment, brandishing a virtual spreadsheet that showed a giant spike. “Interest is way up for our delivery service. Enough so that we are maxed out for tomorrow’s queue. I had to even turn some away.”

Arwain popped back into the world of the living at the exciting news.

“Wait, we’re maxed out? That means we’re going to have to hire some more personnel, doesn’t it?”

Jolly gave him a snide look that said otherwise, turning away with a sigh.

“Should have thought about that before signing the contract. The city’s endorsement was granted to the Silver Stream at the moment 0f the pen hitting the paper. And according to contractual labor laws involving the government, a company cannot take advantage of such contracts to expand its market share. That includes extending the benefits to new hires. Our assets are frozen for the next six months. Didn’t I tell you to think about these things when starting up a company?”

Arwain’s jaw fell to the floor. His shortsightedness had roped the entire team into a host of new trouble. No new hires meant more work for each of them. And one look around the room had made it clear that everyone expected this result except Arwain. Even Dingleberry turned away with a knowing look that intensified the regret.

“W-Well, at least you have me to lighten the load a bit. These fancy schmancy suits make it a bit easier to move around in. We’ll get twice the amount done at this rate!”

Leave it to Dingleberry to see the joy of hard work. His statement cut the tension that had built up from Arwain’s miss. He bent over and whispered into his boss’s ear.

“As they say on the surface, no need for pitchworks when hoes till the ground. Let’s keep ourselves busy, and we’ll see it harvest one day. I’ll happily draw the cocks my way, if it means y’all can rush in and collect the eggs.”

A snort rose from Arwain’s throat. It turned into a full-bellied laugh as the words hit home.

“Dingleberry, you have some strange ways of cheering people up. But I get it, I’m feeling more motivated now.”

He slapped the farm boy’s back and rose to his feet, the spark returning to his eyes.

“Alright! Can’t have the newest one of our crew being more fired up than the man himself! We’ll do our job and be the best champions this city will ever see. We’ll do both and compromise on neither. So let’s go out there and start a ‘riot’!”

A few stray claps topped off his declaration. He looked around as his crew half-heartedly applauded. It wasn’t much, but it was definitely a start.

Tomorrow was another day to make things right.