Wild Thang’s Journal (Season 2)

> "*Now I want you to know, you’ve done your part.*"
> ― Mary Mansick, September 19th 2018
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## Entry #11: How Time Flies

I arrived at the hospital last week to pick up mom. I can still hear the baby cries and the constant sound of wheezing from other patients. I went to the reception desk as usual, and got told to wait for the orderly. So I found the closest chair I could find and leaned back, the crappy chair moaned. The man in the chair next to me started to tap his foot to the tune of some mysterious beat in his massive earmuffs. I hated this insane hospital rule. I’ve been to her room a dozen times. I should just be allowed to go up there and get her. How long am I supposed to wait here anywho? I’m pretty damn sure this guy has been listening to funky town on a loop or something, because whatever rhythm he’s tapping has been repeating for the last 10 mins.

When the orderly finally shows up with mom, I signed the papers and I did my best smile at mom, and she did a forced smile too. She was wearing the green blouse with the faded jeans I’d brought from home and it looked like the doctors had loosely wrapped her right arm and the transformed side of her face. We piled into the Uber for the long quiet car ride home since the doctor said she shouldn’t drive for a few days until she got used to the new extremities. I had to distract mom with details about the new school schedule, when we stopped in front of that “No Transformed” sign in that 6/12 gas station. The least I could do was make sure she got home before she found out what was going on in the world outside the hospital, since the news had been pretty quiet on the No Ts signs so far.

Someone in city hall was probably holding the story back, to prevent it from making the news circuit. The Uber driver was nice enough to pull us into the driveway before letting us out. I thanked him and waved him goodbye. I ran ahead to open up the door to the house, but mom stopped frozen. I thought I screwed something up; were the flowers wrong? Did I leave a mirror uncovered? Was it too bright? Mom slowly approached the side table with our family photos and the glass vase filled with wildflowers. Her hand reached out and plucked a batch of three tiny daisies from the vase. She smelled them, then turned to me and smiled, a real smile.

“Thank you dear, you’ve been a real trooper.“ Mom hugged me harder than she’d ever done before. Without letting go she started talking to me. “Now I want you to know, you’ve done your part. Mom is taking over from now on okay? You won’t be taking care of me. I’m going to be a full time Mom. I’ll do all the cooking, all the cleaning, and I’m still working. It’s just going to be from home now okay? You’re my top priority. When school opens up again I want you to just be the good boy you’ve always been. I love you Jake. “

“I love you too Mom.” We both smiled, until mom started to cry, and I couldn’t help but cry too. We probably looked like idiots standing in the doorway holding flowers and crying but neither of us cared.

The next week went by fast, mom had been true to her word. It was amazing. Mom hadn’t been home for this long since I was a kid; we watched TV, we started a new flower garden in the backyard, we even talked about getting a dog. The neighborhood was amazingly supportive and everyone stopped by to welcome her home and shake her hand. Mom talked with Carol from two doors down about the next single mother’s book club meeting. I’d never thought I’d be happy to hear mom complain about all the illegal proceedings that happen during every episode of Law & Order.

It was Monday morning. I knew mom said that she’d do everything but things had been so amazing lately, that I wanted to cook some breakfast before I went to school. So I woke up extra early, started beating the eggs for the french toast, turned on the stove top and then pulled out a batch of her mulched peaches. That’s when I heard the shattering of falling glass. I ran upstairs to see mom was in the bathroom. The shower was still running. Mom had taken off her bandages. The bumpy fly's eye and the hard black hairs that covered her face were staring at her in the fractured mirror. The tears were running down her face and her human hand was covered in glass. She was still leaning over the sink, punching the mirror over and over again.

“MOM!! Stop! Please!” I couldn’t stop the words from breaking up as I spoke them. I grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her down to the ground away from the mirror. Mom looked up at me, “Jake, I... I did.. I didn’t mean to... I’M SO SORRY JAKE!” Mom started crying into my chest. I didn’t know what to feel. I just started stroking her hair on the bathroom floor. I couldn’t go to school today.

”*This wouldn’t have happened if you’d followed the rules. These are the consequences of breaking the order of things.”*

## Entry #12: Oct 10 - Balancing Acts

Grams says she’s holding down the fort back at the Horn of the Wild, but I need to start hero work soon or else things will get out of balance. I’m starting to wonder If I’d been going about this the right way. I joined the Big Team to prevent things like T- Day from happening and I let T-Day happen by letting my feelings about Rochelle blind me. If the Big Team had some actual government oversight, maybe they would have prevented Rochelle’s reckless plan. Then mom wouldn’t be going through this, the city wouldn’t be going through this. Isn’t it a hero‘s job to uphold what’s right? But by not working with the government we are in fact doing what’s wrong? I’ll think on it some more.

I told Super Crisp I needed time to think about my place on the team for a while or until things stabilize with mom at least. I think Super Crisp may have just ignored me, because I’m pretty sure he sent me a tutor. It’s either that or this new girl has gone to some pretty elaborate methods to cover up asking me out when we first met. Her name is Rhiannon. She fits the tutor type; smart, cheery, pretty in that bookish sorta way and British, I think? When she stopped by the house to study and get caught up on homework, Mom and her seem to hit it off actually. She has this bright disposition that mom tends to gravitate toward. When I asked her what her powers were she told me. She’s some form of magical nature girl called fey touched, which was so helpful because her magic can get the mosaic gateway to function again. And despite trying all the weird magic exercises she recommended, I still haven’t been able to get it to work without her. She’s holding back something though. The first time we traveled through the portal, her skin turned all white and these magic runes appeared to be cut into her flesh. I didn't want to push it. I’m going to have her stay close, at least until I can fix my powers. Which is fine by Grams because she approves of her, a little too much actually...why can’t I just be normal.

Note to self: Using google maps for teleportation can lead to rough landings.

*Jake puts down the pen and spins around in his chair, and stares at an old picture of his grandmother as Wild Thang, standing next to a young Super Crisp, and the 80s League of Heroes.*

*”Grams you’re there right?” Jake spoke to the empty room, when a few seconds later, he sees a wrinkled old woman leaning over a spear with two large bells attached to it, wearing a leather dress adorned with long brown and red feathers, and a fur coat layered on her back. “Would the fountain of healing in the Horn of the Wild cure mom?” Jake asked in a harsh tone.*

*”Jake, your mother does not belong on the Horn.” The old woman said, as she straightened her back as if ready for battle.*

*Jake stood up. “Grams that doesn’t make any sense. I’ve brought plenty of normal people along before, why can’t I bring mom?”*

*”Your mother is an imbalance to the Horn. Do you not see that is the reason you wear the mantle so young.” Grams’ words were cold and deliberate. Jake clenched his fist. “It’s not her fault dad disappeared!”*

*“Jake, my son left the Horn long before he left your mother. If my son had left your mother sooner, the Horn would not be so unstable. You do not yet understand how missing a generation of Wild Thang has harmed the Horn. The old woman towered over Jake. Jake could no longer hold it in and he shouted at the top of his lungs.*

*“I don’t care about that! All I want is for mom to be better. All of that happened before I was born so why does it even matter now?!” Grams stared at Jake and her sweet motherly voice darkened and became filled with rage.*

*”It matters my grandson, because it concerns your future and everyone‘s futures. The mantle of the Wild Thang is more important to the natural law of the universe. We are the balance between good and evil, law and order. Without us, the world would fall apart at it’s seams.” Grams slams her stick to the floor and room filled with a bright green light. The light disappears and Jake is left in his room alone, with his little T-shaped desk lamp flickering on and off.*

*Jake turns, shoves his chair to the side and writes a note at the bottom of his journal.*

”If this is the natural order then we need new laws.”

## Entry #13: Oct 14 - Said the Spider to the Fly

*“Man was meant for the earth, if we were to fly we’d have been born with wings.”*

What if I’m not a hero? Well I know I’m writing this for me and not for Grams. Anywho, I think this will make more sense if I take it step by step. It was what you’d call a normal Sunday; cereal for me and a rotten peach smoothie for mom. We watched some football but then I got a text message from Super Crisp telling the team that he’d be unreachable today. If I had to guess that was why they showed up at my door... Mom’s new medication has her pretty out of it most of the time, so when she answered the door she barely noticed the giant robot. Valor (as his name turned out) was hard to miss in this circle of 6 including Gwen, Dominik, Rhiannon and Olivia. I got them away from mom before her head cleared up.

Philosotea was mostly empty as usual. Gwen was calling in a favor; she wanted to see her father. She still didn’t see why it was so bad. I was relieved not to have to lie to everyone anymore. The problem was that I remembered where we took Lancelot to.

Super Crisp *had brought an unconscious Lancelot to Jake and asked him to take him to his grandmother in The Spirit Realm. Super Crisp told Jake that Grams would find a place that could hold him. When they got to the Horn of the Wild, Grams was waiting for them dressed in her full battle garb with spear in hand, belt of magical artifacts and solemn face. She guided them through narrow twists and turns in the deep roots until they came to a giant carved wooden door guarded by two lions with the heads of goats. The carvings in the door were etches of twisted half-clothed people what could only be scene as writhing in pain. “Jake please put the Mantle of the Wild Thang’s center medallion here,” Grams commanded. Jake did as he was told and the symbol locked in place. The door shook and spat the medallion back at him then slowly opened. “Now help me bring him inside, Jake.”*

*Grams’ forceful tone echoed the familiarity of his early training. Something was off. It didn’t feel right, but before Jake could speak up there was a hard breeze just in front of him from Lancelot‘s tremendous sword. Jake fell to the floor, scrambling, but his feet just wouldn’t stick to the floor. Lancelot was swinging wildly, like a mad dog. Whatever spell or drugs that kept him in his state of unconsciousness was clearly still affecting him. The blade's strikes fell one after another. Jake was barely dodging the swings as he heard them crack the tree beneath him, until his hand got caught on one of the new cracks created by Lance’s sword. He slipped and was stuck, with the dark knight’s blade about to slice him in half.*

*Lancelot froze. An ethereal spear had pierced straight through his heart.  Lancelot's eyes reflected golden glittering waves of light and his armor shattered into purple beads of light in all directions. Grams twisted her spear and the spear became solid again just as the attached ring wrapped around Lance’s arms. Grams used her new leverage to launch him through the door where it immediately moaned, slamming shut. Jake could hear his heart hammering away as he took deep breaths. Then he felt a small twinge in his shoulder. Then a large pain. And then blackness.*

Jake *awoke under the waterfall in the fountain of healing at the center of the tree. Grams was watching over him from the edge of the pool.*

*“You should not be so careless, grandson. You are lucky we’re close to the fountain or you would have lost that arm and that corrupt knight would be wandering this tree still.“*

So when Gwen mentioned returning to that place, I grew still. Fortunately, when Gwen brought up never seeing her family again, Valor got up and left the room giving me a chance to breathe. Gwen and Dom chased after him. Things were awkward inside until they got back, no one was quite ready to say anything.

With the Mosaic Gateway barely functioning I wasn’t sure if we could even make it there. Maybe if we used Dom's dragon energy & Rhiannon's magic we might be able to open a portal to the Horn. Heck this was the only way it could have worked. This was my only chance for who knows how long to heal mom. I’d be going directly against Grams, but I couldn’t let mom stay like this much longer. The fountain had a chance to cure her. I had to use it. When everyone came back inside, I agreed. They accepted my condition to bring mom and we set off back home.

The couch wasn’t the best place for this conversation, but it had to be now for mom’s sake. My conversation with mom wasn’t what you’d call smooth. She didn’t believe me at first, then she blamed Grams. I guess in a way it kinda is Grams fault. We started to walk to the backyard where everyone was gathered when she stopped me, grabbed me by both of my hands, and made me promise to stop this superheroing business. She couldn’t stand worrying about me every night. What could I say? I couldn’t deny mom, not now. So I said, “Yes.” Everything went smoother than expected. Dom’s dragon energy & Rhiannon's magic worked like a charm and we were in the Spirit Realms. But Grams was waiting for me at the fountain. She refused to let mom in the fountain, repeating everything from our shouting match before. But I wasn’t going to let her stop me this time. Gwen & Dom stood up for me and mom. I’m not sure if I can make it up to them, because Grams for once relented and let us pass.

Mom got in the fountain. It would take some time for the magic to work, so I set off with the others to fulfill my promise to Gwen. I took them down to the door and opened it as I did before and we went inside. I’m not sure what I expected when we went in but it wasn’t this. The reception area gave us a guide gerbil through each floor, but each one....each one was a horrid, slow torture. They tempted starving people with rotting meat. Is this what I helped send Lancelot to? This system of floor by floor torture. Oh Grams... I didn’t know what was here, I would not have agreed if I’d known.

We eventually found Lancelot on the 4th floor which the gerbil informed us, was filled with men who’d murdered people or committed violent crimes. They were in rags, beating each other with stones. We found Lancelot in the center of the pit of violence still wielding his sword and cutting through waves of men.  We pulled him out of the circle into a corner where Gwen, Rhiannon, and Lancelot were reunited. All three smiled, just happy to be in each other's presence for a moment even in this chaos.

That’s when it happened. A sharp pain in my shoulder and head. I couldn’t move, I could barely speak. All I could feel was stillness, distant serenity and calmness. These feelings, they echoed like a voice in my head.

*“See the chaos of man around you, it is their folly that leads to destruction”*

I stammered. My jaw moved but my mouth, I couldn’t speak. I saw Valor pull out a pair of cuffs, and Dom demanding the sword be given to Gwen. Gwen charging at Lancelot, Lancelot swatting everyone down, Rhiannon placing a magical barrier between Lancelot and the others. But the white noise that screamed calmness, silence in my head, I couldn’t block it out and it was like a nail had been driven right into my brain.

*“Their fickle laws are abandoned, at the whims of children’s ideals.”*

The white vision broke and I heard Gwen screaming, ‘Jake open the portal!’ I had to get out of here. Somewhere calm...home? I set the portal for home. I looked to Dom and Rhiannon, the portal was reopened and I went through, and everyone followed behind. As I landed in the plains of the savanna, mom was there and collapsed into my arms. Grams scoffed. “She does not belong here, she goes with you, back!” When Valor came out he appeared shocked that Lancelot was not with him. It appears that they were trying to break Lancelot out.

I didn’t really stay around to chat to find out for sure because I brought mom inside. She was still unconscious, but she was back to normal. She had her two green eyes back and all ten fingers. I placed her in her bed upstairs and squeezed her tight, she was really normal you know? And for the first time since T-Day, I wasn’t worried about how I was going to make it through tomorrow. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to walk up to Super Crisp’s office, tell him I was leaving, and go on and live my life. Damn Grams, damn the Spirit Realms. It was my life and I wasn’t going to let her control me. I’d make it work some other way.

I wiped clean the water from my eyes and stepped into the hall where Dom was leaning. He'd just come up to make sure everything was okay. He was hiding something though. You can always tell with Dom, his bright green eyes almost appear to shake and the Dragon’s spirit always seems to recede into the background when he wants to say something he’s unsure of. The whole ordeal had brought up his memories of the parents he’d lost after he’d merged with the Dragon. Dom was starting to break. I couldn’t watch that happen. I grabbed him by the shoulders and promised him that we would find his parents wherever they were. Dom maybe broke a rib with the proceeding hug, but Dom always gives the best hugs despite the rib damage.

I’m sorry Mom, I can’t quit just yet. Not at least until we find Dom’s parents.

## Entry #14: Oct 20 - A Bank, An Overpass & a Dragon

Today was a long one. Somehow I ended helping everyone stop a bank robbery downtown. I’m not sure what I was doing there. I’d promised mom that I’d stop doing hero work. We managed to stop some guy and his buddy and their magical glowing fists. Rhiannon pulled a tree out of thin air, Dom cracked open a vault with his fist, Rescue created some kind of magical black hole and Squire spent the whole time flirting with Star Studded’s Flyby Girl, while I spent the day running around in the vents as a mouse. So you know a typical Saturday.

*“Our word is our law, we must always follow it.”*

I had such a headache after the robbery. I went home for a while but it wouldn’t go away. Something was telling me I had to see Dom. If I didn’t make an effort to make him tell me about his parents then we’d never make any progress and I couldn’t keep my word to mom to stop.

So I went searching for him, it took me a couple of hours to find him because most of the people in the tent cities didn’t even want to talk to me. The ones who did couldn’t help me, but eventually Dom found me, under this overpass on Broad St. Dom seem really nervous with me there so we left the homeless den for a bit of a walk. As it turns out Dom’s parents weren’t missing at all, he knew exactly where they were. He was so stuck on this idea that he had to be some kind of role model to go back to them. Dom the biggest kindest lug I know was somehow unfit to see them. I did my best to explain how things were with mom, and how parents are weird and they just kinda have to listen, you know. He wasn’t listening though. It was frustrating, but I guess I was going to have to do it his way. When he started listing everything he needed before he could go back and see them, the least I could do was help. It didn’t take much convincing to get mom to let him stay with us and get him a job at that veterinarian clinic she’d helped out of a labradoodle lawsuit. He’s such a big guy, and he’s a dork. He made the dragon act as our witness that if he was going to have to speak with his parents then I was going to have to talk to Grams about my dad.

“Seeing you broker an agreement is ridiculous”

My headaches keep getting worse. I’m going to go the store and pick up some aspirin so maybe that’ll help. Tomorrow me and Dom are supposed to start upgrading the old shed in the backyard. Maybe the fresh air will help.

## Entry #15: Three's Company

It's been a bizarre week to be sure, well at least bizarre for me. Grams hasn’t spoken to me all week. Which is frustrating as I promised Dom, I’d confront Grams about Dad and what it actually means being a Wild Thang, but if she won’t even come when I call. Dom told me about this festival that Rescue was raving about, and how its all about visiting with your ancestors. Maybe I can talk to Dad there or at least force Grams to talk to me there. If the festival has any real spirit realm connections then maybe It’ll work. It's a small chance, but still a chance to find something out.

Even with Dom around the house, mom insisted I still do some of the chores. My routine this week was well, pretty normal at that. I’m not sure I have anything to report. I made it to class every day this week. I spent my lunches with Jackson, Rhiannon, Gwen and Olivia. The Team seems to be high spirits since Spectre came back to the base. My afternoons were spent with Dom working on the new shed in the backyard and the evenings were dinner with Mom and Dom followed by TV or the new card game Dom’s into, Wizard’s Gathering.

Speaking of Dom, the small birthday dinner me & mom threw him didn’t quite go as expected. He seemed to appreciate the sentiment, but was confused by the teddy bear mom got him. Mom was always terrible with gifts, I guess I’m not much better. When I got him a new jacket, and an extra set of his T-shirt and pants, he excused himself and ran off. I tried to go after him, but mom insisted I let him be. I think Dom may not be used to living here yet. He still hasn’t wore the clothes yet, I just wish I could read minds like Grams sometimes.

Other than these splitting migraines, the Dom’s birthday debacle & Dom’s long showers, it’s been the best week in over two years. I’ll just pick up some aspirin on my way home tomorrow, for the headaches and work stuff out with Dom.

I also think I’ve figured out my costume for the Big Base lock in. I found some old cardboard boxes in the attic, I’m going to go as a cardboard knight. Rochelle wants me to go as a jungle cat. But I do that all the time, it's not as glamorous as it sounds. Maybe I can use the Halloween party to talk to both Dom and Rochelle.